2019-12-31 Abstract

Title: Probing Cosmic Acceleration with Galaxy Clusters
 
Speaker:  Hao-Yi Wu (Ohio State University)
 
Date: December 31 at 11:10
 
Location: R521, General Building II
 
Abstract:
The acceleration of the Universe is one of the biggest puzzles in physics: is it due to a cosmological constant, dynamical dark energy, or modification of gravity?  Because cosmic acceleration slows down the growth of structure, surveys of galaxy clusters across cosmic time provide a unique opportunity to answer this question.  I will talk about how we use optical imaging surveys to identify clusters, measuring their weak gravitational lensing effects, and deriving constraints on cosmology.  I will focus on using simulations to model the signals and covariance matrices of cluster lensing. These results not only mitigate the systematic errors in current cluster surveys but also help the optimizations of future ground- and space-based missions.