Lighting up the Dark Universe

Recent progress in cosmological observations reveal a simple yet strange universe. Our preferred cosmological model relies on mysterious components such as Dark Matter, Dark Energy and an early period of accelerated expansion. The challenge in the next decade will be to understand the nature of these components and reveal new aspects of fundamental physics. I will discuss the synergies between upcoming redshift and CMB experiments and show that thanks to sample variance cancellation techniques, a large improvement on constraining power is possible even at fixed volume. I will highlight the role of cross-correlations and velocity fields in increasing the statistical power of future surveys, while at the same time allowing for greater control of systematics. I will show how the combination of large-scale structure and CMB experiments hold great promise to reveal the secrets of our mysterious Universe.

Speaker: Simone Ferraro, UC Berkeley

Room 50-5132