Universe Colloquium: Planck cosmology, galaxy clusters, and neutrino masses: the view from the optical

by Eduardo Rozo (SLAC)

Wednesday 30 Oct 2013, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Berlin

seminar room, basement (Excellence Cluster Universe)

One of the most notorious results in the recent wave of Planck publications is that the abundance of galaxy clusters in the local Universe (as measured by ESA's Planck mission) cannot be reconciled with the cosmological parameters inferred from the primary cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations in a vanilla LCDM cosmology. One possible resolution to this problem are massive neutrinos, a tantalizing result! We will critically review the evidence for a non-zero neutrino mass, with a particular emphasis on the caveats that go into this conclusion, placing these within the context of a unified multi-wavelength picture of galaxy clusters, and how galaxy clusters complement the CMB. The Universe Colloquium is followed by a social gathering with wine and cheese.