This project will develop groundbreaking tools for the statistical analysis of large data sets. The idea is to build a lossless, yet feasible, way to link raw data to the underlying cosmologically and astrophysically important information, which will be represented in an easily communicable form, accessible to all. Information from complementary data sets will be combined in a meta-analysis that tests the current standard cosmology. Although the present focus is on cosmic microwave background data sets, the range of possible applications is much broader, including, for example, gravitational lensing and large scale structure.
The work includes a symbiotic and multifaceted outreach program, tightly integrated with the research plan, which includes undergraduates and graduates, shares ideas, results and codes through a WWW portal, and also informs the non-expert about cosmology while offering an opportunity to contribute actively through a distributed computing effort. This research should enable currently unimaginable analyses, provide a major new resource of cosmological knowledge, and help to reveal the information that will drive the next great advances in cosmology.
