A Long Winter: Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization with the South Pole Telescope

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Speaker(s): Jason Gallicchio

The South Pole Telescope is the largest Cosmic Microwave Background telescope in the world. Its high-resolution maps were the first to show evidence of so-called B-mode polarization due to gravitational lensing by intervening matter. Wider maps are now shedding light on the larger-sized B-modes generated by gravity waves created a right after the big bang. I will discuss the technology involved, how our measurements relate to the BICEP2 Planck results, and what it was like to spend nine dark months at the South Pole with the same 43 people, knowing there was no way in or out.

Colloquium

Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.