Speaker
Description
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is a powerful tool for understanding cosmology and particle physics. At large angular scales, the CMB images the primordial universe providing a window into physics that preceded the hot radiation-dominated era. The CMB also images acoustic oscillations in our early universe exquisitely tracing our thermal history and the corresponding evolution of our universe’s energy composition. The CMB is also sensitive to physics of the “late” universe through secondary CMB anisotropies such as weak gravitational lensing and scattering. These mechanisms provide tools for the CMB to constrain fundamental physics including inflation, neutrinos, light relic particles, dark matter, and dark energy. In this talk, I will provide an overview of near-term CMB experiments with a particular emphasis on ground-based measurements including the upcoming CMB-S4 project, a community-wide effort to extend our CMB capabilities by an order of magnitude over projects that are currently observing or under construction. I will conclude with some thoughts on future opportunities for mm-wave cosmological surveys and technical connections to low energy dark matter and neutrino experiments.
