Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics
- Address:
- ERC 585
- Pronouns:
- he, him, his
- Phone:
- (773) 834-0269
- Email:
- carlstrom@uchicago.edu
- Assistant
- Shawn Manner
Background
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1988
Research Fields
- Experimental astrophysics and cosmology
- Galactic and extragalactic astronomy and astrophysics
- New instrumentation
- Observational cosmology
Research Groups
- South Pole Telescope Group (Leader)
Scientific Projects
- Cosmic Microwave Background Stage 4 (CMB-S4)
- Dark Energy Survey (DES)
- South Pole Telescope (SPT)
Students
- Daniel Dutcher (graduate/Physics)
- Zhoadi Pan (graduate/Physics)
- Wei Quan (graduate/Physics)
- Joshua Sobrin (graduate/Physics)
Affiliations
Research
Observational cosmology using new instruments to measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation and the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effects. Director of the 10 meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) project, which completed the 2500 square degrees SPT-SZ survey in three bands at arc minute resolution, and the SPTpol survey of 500 square degrees in two bands to unprecedented sensitivity. We have now deployed SPT-3G with 16,260 bolometric detectors to make deep polarization maps over 2500 square degrees. In addition to increased precision on cosmological parameters and probing Inflation, the SPT data allows investigations of extensions to the standard model, such as the number and masses of the neutrinos, and the nature of dark energy. Furthermore, the high resolution of the SPT measurements allows us to detect directly the emergence and evolution of structure in the universe through the subtle, small-angular scale distortions they impart on the background, such as gravitational lensing from the mass in the universe and the scattering from ionized gas (the SZ effects).
Through a joint Chicago/Argonne superconducting detector development collaboration, the SPT group bulit the focal plane for SPT-3G, with 16,260 detectors to increase the polarization mapping speed by an order of magnitude over SPTpol. We are now working toward scaling up detector fabrication and testing for the 500,000 detector CMB-S4 project.
I am also working on the CMB-S4, the next generation CMB ground based instrument. I am co-chair of the Interim Collaboration Coordination Committee.
News & Highlights
- “Initial results from South Pole Telescope SPT-3G camera hint at future insights about our universe”, UChicago News, February 29, 2024
- John Carlstrom has been awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics, January 11, 2024
- “NSF awards up to $21.4M for design of next-gen telescopes to capture earliest moments of universe”, UChicago News, October 30, 2023
- “University of Chicago receives reflector for next generation telescope”, FOX 32 Chicago, October 10, 2022
- Joshua A. Frieman, Chair of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, July 1, 2022
- “Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy”, UChicago News by Louise Lerner, May 12, 2022
- “Event Horizon Telescope takes pioneering image of massive jet spewing from black hole”, UChicago News, July 26, 2021
- John Carlstrom named 2020 AAAS Fellow, November 25, 2020
- UChicago to partner with Berkeley Lab to build next-gen cosmic microwave background experiment, September 9, 2020
- “Leftover Big Bang light helps calculate how massive faraway galaxies are”, UChicago News, March 3, 2020
- Event Horizon Telescope Awarded 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, September 5, 2019