Dr. Seljak of Princeton University will develop a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyze, understand, and connect the many facets of weak gravitational lensing and its significance to cosmology. The phenomenon of weak gravitational lensing occurs when matter along the line of sight, which might otherwise be unobservable, magnifies and distorts the images of background galaxies. Dr. Seljak will make progress in this area of research by comparing his theoretical predictions to actual observations. He will make use of several observational surveys, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Deep Lens Survey. He will use these data to put constraints on the masses of neutrinos, the nature of the newly discovered dark energy, the presence of dark matter in clusters of galaxies, the effect of dark matter on the formation of galaxies, and the relationship between the clustering of dark matter and that of galaxies.
As part of his educational mission, Dr. Seljak will work on developing an undergraduate course in computational physics at Princeton, using his research as examples. He will also integrate undergraduate students from all levels into his research group. Dr. Seljak will also participate in a local outreach program through which he will partner with a local teacher and participate in regular class visits.
