"CMB Perspectives on an Evolving Universe from the South Pole Telescope"

Thursday, February 23 at 4:00pm to 5:30pm

Space Sciences Building, 105

The polarization and fine-scale temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a powerful tool for cosmology, encoding the history of the Universe from inflation to structure formation. Order of magnitude improvements in sensitivity are finally opening up this rich new field, as evidenced by recent "firsts" from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These include the first galaxy cluster catalog selected by the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, the first detection of the background of SZ power from large-scale structure, and the first constraints on the cosmic ionization history at all redshifts. I will discuss what we are learning from the SPT survey with attention to the status and prospects for galaxy cluster cosmology. I will also preview future results from the new polarization sensitive camera mounted on the SPT this winter.