Dr. Emmanuel Schaan, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

"Backlighting large-scale structure with the cosmic microwave background"

Abstract: Upcoming large-scale structure (LSS) surveys promise to measure the properties of dark matter, dark energy, and the masses of the neutrinos. However, this requires disentangling cosmology from the astrophysics of galaxy formation, which obscures the connection between visible matter and dark matter, and modifies their distributions. Galaxy imprints on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) offer a unique opportunity to simultaneously answer these cosmology and astrophysics questions. I will show how to use the CMB as a backlight for the LSS, to reveal the hidden baryons via the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects. This will solve the missing baryon problem, determine the gas thermodynamics in clusters and quantify the amplitude of astrophysical feedbacks, thus transforming our understanding of galaxy formation. I will then present new methods to more accurately map the total mass distribution in the Universe, through the gravitational lensing of the CMB. This will help calibrate some of the most limiting LSS systematics, and add confidence in upcoming measurements of the dark energy equation of state and neutrino masses.