Computational Astrophysics: Cosmology

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides scientists an unprecedented glimpse into the nature of fundamental physical processes that have governed the origin and evolution of the universe since the dawn of time itself.

CCA is a hub of exploration into the universe’s earliest moments. By studying the CMB, a relic of the universe’s birth, CCA researchers delve into fundamental physical processes that have shaped our cosmos over eons.

Researchers at CCA work on multiple CMB projects including Planck, Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Simons Observatory.

In particular, researchers at CCA lead data reduction pipeline at the Simons Observatory and performed pivotal analyses on all of these CMB projects.

The extreme properties — density, temperature and scale — of astrophysical and cosmological environments make for excellent laboratories of new physical phenomena beyond the Standard Models of particle physics and cosmology.

CCA researchers exploit effects such as anomalous stellar cooling via the production of weakly-coupled particles; galactic dynamics to determine potential non-gravitational interactions of dark matter; gravitational lensing to search for small-scale dark matter structures; and large-scale structure and cosmic microwave background measurements to learn about the field content of the early universe.

Scientific advances in these areas require interdisciplinary efforts between the fields of particle phenomenology, cosmology, galaxy dynamics and formation, stellar physics and gravitational waves, and synergy between analytic calculations, simulations and a myriad of observational probes.