Dr. Elena Pierpaoli, at the California Institute of Technology, will undertake a program to develop theoretical methods to extract physical and cosmological information from upcoming Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) observations. Galaxy clusters are the most massive, gravitationally bound objects in our Universe, and their study has been pursued for several decades with the double aim of constraining cosmology and understanding structure formation. In the past these studies have mainly relied on optical and X-ray information. In the near future, new results are expected from wider and deeper optical surveys, high-resolution X-ray images, lensing studies and the analysis of the radio (and near-infrared) maps where clusters appear through the SZ effect.
This research will produce broad impacts in several areas, including a code optimized for cluster detection, and the public release of the Planck pre-launch catalog. A by product of the research will be the production of SZ observed maps from the simulations. These will be used to complete movies of cluster formation already developed for public outreach. An addition of this research is the training of new scientists by involving them in modern research. Part of this activity will involve scientists in applied mathematics, rendering it interdisciplinary and potentially useful for application in other fields of science. The international character of the collaborations will provide an opportunity for the young scientists involved to travel aborad, further strengthening their professional development and integration into the international scientific community.
