3:30–5:00 pm
Title: The Next Decade of Experimental Cosmology Using Fast Radio Bursts
Abstract: The current generation of cosmological surveys like LSST, Euclid, DESI, and CMB-S4 will be limited by our understanding of galaxy formation, AGN feedback, and the diffuse, baryonic universe. Meanwhile, fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond duration radio transients which, despite their mysterious origin, are sensitive probes of the diffuse, ionized gas in and around galaxies. The race is on, fueled by Moore’s Law and the GPU/AI revolution, to build instruments capable of detecting these mysterious transients and pinpointing them with sufficient angular resolution to understand their origin and unlock their cosmological potential. I will outline my work transforming the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment into the world’s most powerful FRB detection and localization machine using low-frequency very long baseline interferometry (VLBI): a technique, abandoned decades ago, which we have revived for FRB localization. I will also show how FRBs can be used to probe the unseen universe on all scales: from Jupiter-mass primordial black holes, to the ionized interstellar and circumgalactic media, to diffuse baryons on cosmological length scales relevant for weak lensing, and perhaps the expansion of the Universe itself.
Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/93381746022?pwd=154p1wHz69diNZPS9Ar47URvOUCOcz.1
