Astrophysics

Current and near-future cosmological surveys can provide powerful tests of gravity on the largest scales. However, in order to extract this information, it is essential to understand the host of parameter degeneracies which may arise. I present two approaches towards this goal, with a focus on the use of weak gravitational lensing measurements in combination with other probes. First, I discuss a novel expression for a weak lensing power spectrum under alternative theories of gravity. Obtained by considering small deviations from GR, this expression separates various physical effects of modifications to GR, thus allowing a quantitative understanding of degeneracies between gravitational parameters. Second, I present an investigation into the theoretical uncertainty inherent to the popular gravity-testing statistic E_G. By improving our understanding of the theoretical value of E_G, we can use it to make more robust statements about the viability of alternative theories of gravity on cosmological scales.

On small scales, our understanding of dark matter in galaxies is incomplete. One example is that high resolution simulations predict a large number of subhalos in dark matter halos, which should be seen in our Milky Way galaxy as a host of satellite galaxies. Many plausible astrophysical mechanisms have been proposed to explain why we don't clearly see large numbers of such satellite galaxies, but this remains a test of the cold dark matter scenario that has yet to be passed. Gravitational lensing provides a direct probe of subhalos in distant galaxies, but requires high sensitivity and angular resolution. I will talk about a search that is now started using strong lensing of the mm and submm-wave emission from dust grains in high-redshift star-forming galaxies. The properties of the dust emission are well-matched to the typical expected scales of the dark matter subhalos, and ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter Array) now has the sensitivity and angular resolution to start to see the lensing signature of these subhalos. We haven't found any yet in early data, but we should see some soon if the cold dark matter paradigm is correct.

Eugenio Bianchi and Matteo Smerlak have found a beautiful relationship between the Hawking radiation energy and von Neumann entropy in a conformal field emitted by a semiclassical two-dimensional black hole. Shohreh Abdolrahimi and I compared this relationship with what might be expected for unitary evolution of a quantum black hole in four and higher dimensions. If one neglects the expected increase in the radiation entropy over the decrease in the black hole Bekenstein-Hawking A/4 entropy that arises from the scattering of the radiation by the barrier near the black hole, the relation works very well, except near the peak of the radiation von Neumann entropy and near the final evaporation. These discrepancies are calculated and discussed as tiny differences between a semiclassical treatment and a quantum gravity treatment.

I will present a novel approach to explain the smoothness and flatness of the universe on large scales and the generation of a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic density perturbations.

High resolution CMB experiments, such as ACT, SPT, and the Planck satellite are making precision measurements of the secondary anisotropies caused by the thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect from galaxy clusters. However, our ability to obtain cosmological information from this tSZ signal is limited by our theoretical understanding of the baryons in clusters and groups. I will discuss how cross correlation methods are providing new windows into the messy “Gastrophysics” of the intracluster medium and the potential for these methods to constrain various cosmological parameters.

Understanding the physics of galaxy formation is arguably among the greatest problems in modern astrophysics. Recent cosmological simulations have demonstrated that "feedback" by star formation, supernovae and active galactic nuclei appears to be critical in obtaining realistic disk galaxies, to slow down star formation to the small observed rates, to move gas and metals out of galaxies into the intergalactic medium, and to balance radiative cooling of the low-entropy gas at the centers of galaxy clusters. However the particular physical processes underlying this "feedback" still remain elusive. In particular, these simulations neglected cosmic rays and magnetic fields, which provide a comparable pressure support in comparison to turbulence in our Galaxy, and are known to couple dynamically and thermally to the gas. Using hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation, I will show how cosmic rays are able to drive powerful galactic winds in low-mass galaxies. This reduces the available amount of gas for star formation and implies a shallower slope of the faint-end of the galaxy luminosity function as required by observations. In the second part of the talk I demonstrate that cosmic-ray heating can balance radiative cooling of the low-entropy gas at the centers of galaxy clusters and helps in mitigating the star formation of the brightest cluster galaxies. New data on the low-frequency radio and gamma-ray emission of M87, the closest active galaxy interacting with the cooling cluster plasma, enable us to put forward a comprehensive, physics-based model of feedback by active galactic nuclei.