Universe Colloquium: Weak lensing cosmology with the Dark Energy Survey and beyond

by Tim Eifler (JPL, CalTech)

Wednesday 10 Jun 2015, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Berlin

seminar room (Excellence Cluster Universe, Boltzmannstrasse 2, Garching)

Dark energy represents a mysterious component of the Universe which is commonly thought to cause accelerated cosmic expansion. In summer 2013, a new project started to solve the mystery of dark energy. This is the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a project where the Excellence Cluster Universe is a member as well. Core of the five-year mission is the powerful 570-Megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco telescope at the National Science Foundation’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in the Andes Mountains in Chile. Recently, DES completed its second season of observations at the southern sky, now covering the full 5000 deg^2 survey footprint at varying depth (23.2-23.4 mag in the i-band). In this talk Tim will give an overview on the DES survey and collaboration and the rich variety of science that can be extracted from this data set. After introducing Weak gravitation lensing (WL) as a probe to constrain cosmology and dark energy, he will then focus on the DES WL analysis and on plans for the upcoming Year 1 analysis. Tim will conclude with an outlook on WL science from future satellite missions (Euclid and WFIRST) and from a potential suborbital, balloon-based telescope. The Universe Colloquium is followed by a social gathering with wine and cheese.