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Theoretical Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics at Caltech

Theoretical Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics at Caltech. Marc Kamionkowski July 21, 2004. HEP Experiment at Caltech: People: Hitlin, Barish, Weinstein, Peck, Porter, Newman, Doug Michael. Nuclear Physics at Caltech. HENP Theory at Caltech: Strings Phenomenology

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Theoretical Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics at Caltech

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  1. Theoretical Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics at Caltech Marc Kamionkowski July 21, 2004

  2. HEP Experiment at Caltech: People: Hitlin, Barish, Weinstein, Peck, Porter, Newman, Doug Michael....

  3. Nuclear Physics at Caltech

  4. HENP Theory at Caltech: • Strings • Phenomenology • Nuclear/Neutrino Physics • QFT/QC/QI Active postdoc program (e.g., Rajagopal, Horava....)

  5. Astronomy/Astrophysics at Caltech:

  6. Also, SIRTF, GALEX, Hershel..... and everything at JPL. And Carnegie Observatories down the road....

  7. Caltech/JPL will be US center for experimental early-Universe cosmology over next decade • Caltech faculty: Readhead, Lange, Zmuidzinas, Golwala • Boomerang was first experiment to map acoustic peaks in CMB • CBI was first to measure power on smaller scales • Have vigorous ongoing ground/balloon-based programs (BICEP, QUaD, QUIET, B2K, CBI, ACBAR, JAKNIFE….) • Are US PI institution for Planck LFI and HFI, and will have US Planck data analysis center

  8. Theoretical Astrophysics and Relativity: Thorne, Sari, Phinney, Goldreich (part) stellar astrophysics, relativity, gravitational waves, cosmology, high-energy astrophysics.... Strong postdoc program (Narayan, Tremaine, Bildsten, Hogan....)

  9. Cosmology/ Û Particle/Nuclear Astrophysics Physics • Dark matter • Dark energy • Inflation • Neutrino astrophysics • Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays • Baryogenesis

  10. Postdocs: Asantha Cooray (Sherman Fairchild Senior Research Fellow; DoE research expenses) Milos Milosavljevic (Fairchild Fellow) Steven Furlanetto (DuBridge Fellow; ~20% Task B) Andriy Kurylov (~30% Task B) L. Arielle Phillips (Irvine Fellow) Amr El-Zant (other sources) Nicole Bell (Fairchild Fellow beginning Fall 2004) James Taylor (arriving this fall; supported by R. Ellis) Graduate Students: Mike Kesden (NASA GSRP) Nevin Weinberg (NASA ATP) Kris Sigurdson (NSERC/DoE) Jonathon Pritchard (TA) Tristan Smith (NSF Fellow) 3 more arriving this fall, one with NSF fellowship, one with 4-year Moore fellowship, and one with 1-year Caltech fellowship People now (at least loosely) affiliated with Caltech theoretical cosmology and particle astrophysics

  11. Other Researchers: Kris Gorski (JPL Visiting associate) Elena Pierpaoli (senior research fellow supported by NSF ADVANCE fellowship; arriving fall 2005) Visitors: Robert Caldwell (sabbatical visit from Dartmouth 2003-2004) Rashid Sunyaev (Moore distinguished scholar; 2003-4) Tsvi Piran (Moore distinguished scholar; 2004-5) People now (at least loosely) affiliated with Caltech theoretical cosmology and particle astrophysics

  12. Students: Mike Santos (PhD 2003; now postdoc at Cambridge) Catherine Cress (PhD 1999; (Columbia) Natal faculty) Alexandre Refregier (PhD 1998 (Columbia); CNRS faculty) Xuelei Chen (PhD 1999 (Columbia) KITP postdoc) Postdocs: Piero Ullio (1999-2000; SISSA faculty) Ken Nollett (2000-2002; permanent member, Argonne nuclear theory group) Peng Oh (2000-2003; UCSB faculty) Andrew Benson (2000-2003; Roy Soc advanced fellow) Eric Agol (2000-2003; Washington faculty) Some Recent Alumni

  13. Experiment: Added Sunil Golwala (dark matter, dark energy, CMB) to faculty 2003 Theory: Have just made tenured offer to Matias Zaldarriaga (CMB, inflation, dark energy….) Caltech is building in particle astrophysics: “Heart of Darkness” initiative will seek private funding for theoretical activity at string/particle/cosmology interface

  14. Our recent (~year) research topics • Effects of dark-matter dipole moments, decays… • Variable fine-structure constant • Probes of dark matter at Galactic center • Dark energy, phantom energy, “Big Rip” • Galactic-halo merger rates • CMB tests of inflation • “Cooling” problem in galaxy clusters • Intergalactic medium • Supersymmetric dark matter • Large-scale structure, weak lensing, inflation, and dark energy • The first stars and reionization ~100 refereed publications over past 5 years

  15. Our work is relevant for • SNAP/JDEM • CMB experiments (WMAP, Planck, CMBPOL… • GLAST/VERITAS/STACEE/…. • Collider experiments (to some extent) • Neutrino experiments • CDMS, etc. • Super-K, IceCube…. • LSST • SDSS/2dF…. • AMS….

  16. Benefits of this program to DoE • DoE funding heavily leveraged by Caltech • Maintains theoretical activity at major center for experimental particle astrophysics and early-Universe cosmology • Supports training of some of the best postdocs and students in the field • Grad student support goes only to students in final year of research, when they are most productive • “One-professor” budget supports theory program in exciting emerging area that competes with programs with larger faculty numbers

  17. Funding profile • 1999-2003: ~$100K/year (PI summer salary plus student) • 2003-2004: ~$150K/year (PI summer salary, student, plus 2nd student or 50% postdoc) • Current request: continued funding at current level Eventually, would like to be able to support 100% postdoc plus student from this Task.

  18. Science Menu • Spintessence • Dipole dark matter • Galaxy-halo mergers • Cluster cooling • Phantom energy and Big Rip • CMB and inflation • Charged-particle decay and small-scale power • Dark clusters, dark energy, and weak lensing • WMAP, CBI, and the first stars • Dark matter at Galactic center

  19. Dipole dark matter (Sigurdson, Caldwell, Doran, Kurylov, MK, 2004) Phenomenological investigation of largest dark-matter electric or magnetic dipole moment consistent with experiments and observations

  20. II. The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Inflation Kesden, Cooray, MK, PRL 89, 011304 (2002)

  21. Boomerang 1998

  22. MK, Spergel, Sugiyama 1994 Geometry Baryon density Hubble constant Cosmological constant "Precision cosmology": Jungman, MK, Kosowsky, Spergel 1996

  23. Results as of 2001:

  24. CBI, May 2002

  25. Archeops 2002

  26. ACBAR, December 2002

  27. (some of) What we have learned: • lpeak ~ 200 ÞW=1.00±0.03; the Universe is flat (MK, Spergel, Sugiyama '94) • Structure grows from nearly scale invariant spectrum of primordial density perturbationsÞ on right track with inflation!(also, increasingly precise determinations of matter and baryon density, Hubble constant....)

  28. WHAT NEXT???

  29. INFLATION galaxies form GUT Þelectroweak,strong?? PQ symmetry breaking?? quantum gravity, strings??? electroweak}EM,weak Decoupling: (e-+pH) Nucleosynthesis: n+pH, D, He, Li SUSY breaking?? The big bang !!! quarks}n,p today 1010 yr T~meV 10-9 sec T~100 GeV 10-43 sec T~ 1019 GeV 10-22 sec T~ 1012 GeV Seconds T~MeV 105 yr T~eV 10-3 sec T~100 MeV 10-36 sec T~ 1016 GeV

  30. STRUCTURE FORMATION GEOMETRY SMOOTHNESS INFLATION What is Einfl? STOCHASTIC GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE BACKGROUND with amplitudeµEinfl2

  31. Detection of gravitational waves with CMB polarization (MK, Kosowsky, Stebbins 1997; see also cover article of Jan 2001 Sci. Am, reprinted in Sci Am special edition 10/02) Temperature map: Polarization Map: Density perturbations have no handedness” so they cannot produce a polarization with a curl Gravitational waves do have a handedness, so they can (and do) produce a curl Model-independent probe of gravitational waves!

  32. Recall, GW amplitude isl2 GWsÞ And from COBE Þ GWs Þunique polarization pattern. Is it detectable? If E<<1015 GeV (e.g., if inflation from PQSB), then polarization far too small to ever be detected. But, if E~1015-16 GeV (i.e., if inflation has something to do with GUTs), then polarization signal is conceivably detectable by Planck or realistic post-Planck experiment

  33. Jaffe, Wang, MK 2000

  34. Problem: Weak gravitational lensing of CMB polarization by density perturbations along line of sight ("cosmic shear") turns part of curl-free polarization pattern into curl.

  35. Kesden, Cooray, MK, PRL 2002

  36. Possible solution: Use higher-order correlations in temperature map that measure stretching from cosmic shear as a function of position on sky

  37. Hivon & MK, Science 296, 267 (2002)

  38. Brief Aside: Large scale structure and inflation Matter power spectrum Inflaton potential Û

  39. Galactic substructure may probe inflaton potential near end of inflation MK & Liddle, PRL 84, 4525 (2000)

  40. Another possibility: suppression of small-scale power by decay of charged dark-matter particles (Sigurdson-MK, 2004) Decay of charged particle with lifetime 3.5 year to dark matter suppresses small-scale power

  41. III. Spin-dependent WIMPs in DAMA? Ullio, MK, Vogel, JHEP 0107, 044 (2001)

  42. core radius density spherical halo: á0=0.3-0.6 GeV/cm3 If halo flattened, á0­ Maxwell- Boltzmann Velocity distribution ~ r With <v2>1/2~270 km/sec Earth The standard smooth halo model r0=8 kpc

  43. Of Weak Interaction strength WIMPs The relic density of a massive particle is about: the particle has to be coupled to SM particles There is chance for detection: Neutrinos from sun/earth direct Detection indirect anomalous cosmic rays WIMP candidate motivated by SUSY: Lightest Neutralino, LSP in SUSY extension of SM

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