Lyman Page
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey
“Measuring the Polarization and Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation in Chile”
Abstract
The remarkably simple standard model of cosmology has passed many tests and its basic parameters have been well constrained. There are multiple aspects of the CMB that support the model but most of the cosmic information comes to us from the surface of decoupling at approximately the edge of the observable universe. A new generation of measurements now uses the CMB along with other cosmic observables such as galaxy surveys to interrogate the volume of the universe between us and decoupling. We can, for example, use the CMB to address such questions as “What is the sum of the neutrino masses?”, “Where is the mass in the universe?”, and “How do galaxies move?” We review the status of observations and recent results with an emphasis on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. We also present what we might hope to learn in the next half decade of observations.