CCA Colloquium: Laura Newburgh
Title: New Probes of Old Structure: Cosmology with 21cm Intensity Mapping
Abstract: Current cosmological measurements have left us with deep questions about our Universe: What caused the expansion of the Universe at the earliest times? How did structure form? What is Dark Energy and does it evolve with time? New experiments like CHIME and HIRAX are poised to address these questions through 3-dimensional maps of structure.
In this talk, I will describe how we will use 21cm intensity measurements from CHIME and HIRAX to place sensitive constraints on Dark Energy between redshifts 0.8 — 2.5, a poorly probed era corresponding to when Dark Energy began to impact the expansion history of the Universe. I will discuss the current status of CHIME, the instrument, and our calibration and analysis techniques.