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Session 30 - Observational Cosmology - Baryons, Mass and Age of The Universe: Tytler/Carlstrom.
Invited session, Monday, June 08
Presidio,
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect is a spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background radiation resulting from inverse-Compton scattering of the photons as they pass through the hot gas contained in rich galaxy clusters. The magnitude of the effect is independent of the cluster redshift, allowing a useful cosmological probe of the distant universe. The combination of radio measurements of the effect and x-ray measurements of the hot gas offers a powerful probe of the cosmic distance scale and other cosmological parameters. The radio measurements have proven to be difficult, requiring high sensitivity and extensive attention to sources of systematic error. Using interferometric techniques at the BIMA and OVRO mm-wave arrays we are able to avoid most sources of systematic error and produce high signal to noise images of the effect. In this talk I will provide an introduction to the effect, review our observational method, and present our results and the contraints placed on the cosmological parameters H_\circ and Ømega.
