[Previous] | [Session 55] | [Next]
Asantha R. Cooray (University of Chicago)
The increasing resolution and signal-to-noise of multifrequency cosmic microwave background (CMB) data suggest the possibility that information on the local universe and the associated large scale structure can be extracted. First, I will outline effects, involving gravity and scattering, due to low redshift structures that lead to modifications to CMB temperature. These changes, however, are minor when compared to effects at the last scattering leading to acoustic peaks and other signatures in the CMB power spectrum. I will present ways in which such small secondary effects can be recovered and studied from CMB data.
Since large number of effects from the local universe contribute to CMB, these can, in return, be used as probes of basic large scale properties involving the dark matter density, velocity and baryon fields. As an example, I will show how one can use the frequency information to separate the contribution due to inverse-Compton scattering of CMB photons via hot electrons (Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect). To further separate effects, especially the ones which have the same thermal spectrum as CMB, I will investigate properties of higher order correlations involving the large scale structure. These possibilities lead to a one strong conclusion: CMB, in addition to its well known use as a probe of cosmology, can also be used to study the local universe. The planned MAP mission will soon allow us to carry out some of these studies.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://astro.uchicago.edu/home/web/asante/presentations.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: asante@hyde.uchicago.edu