ACP Seminar (Astronomy - Cosmology - Particle Physics)

Speaker: Jens Chluba (Toronto)
Title: Signals from the cosmological recombination era and spectral distortions of the CMB
Date (JST): Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 13:30 - 15:00
Place: Seminar Room A
Related File: 559.pdf
Abstract: It was realized that small changes in the cosmological ionization history caused by previously neglected physical processes affect the CMB power spectra at a level that will be noticeable in the analysis of data from the Planck satellite. In my talk I will review recent calculations of the cosmological recombination problem trying to convince everyone that at this point all important processes have been identified and are under control. I will also demonstrate that photons emitted during the recombination epochs lead to interesting deviations of the CMB energy spectrum from a blackbody, which in the future might open another way to learn about the infant Universe. Especially if something non-standard occurred at early times, the CMB energy spectrum may be the only ways to learn about this.