Wine and Cheese Fall 2021

Wine and Cheese sessions with one speaker will have a 50 minute talk with 10 minutes for questions. Sessions with two speakers will have two 25 minute talks, each with 5 minutes for questions. Sessions in the Graduate Student Series will have three 15 minute talks, each with 5 minutes for questions.

20 September

Yunyang Li (JHU)

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect, Clusters, and ACT
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect introduces a specific distortion of the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation when it scatters off hot gas in clusters of galaxies. The frequency dependence of the distortion is only independent of the cluster redshift when the evolution of the CMB radiation is adiabatic. Using 370 clusters within the redshift range 0.07-1.4 from the largest SZ-selected cluster sample to date from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, we provide new constraints on the deviation of CMB temperature evolution from the standard model $\alpha=0.017^{+0.029}_{-0.032}$, where $T(z)=T_0(1+z)^{1-\alpha}$. This result is consistent with no deviation from the standard adiabatic model. Attributing deviation from adiabaticity to the decay of dark energy, this result constrains its effective equation of state $w_\mathrm{eff}=-0.998^{+0.008}_{-0.010}$.

Isu Ravi (JHU)

Lyman-alpha Filter Prototype to Enable Astronomical Photometry in the Lyman Ultraviolet
Observations of astronomical objects in the far ultraviolet (FUV wavelengths span 900-1800 A) from earth’s orbit has been impeded due to bright Lyman-α geocoronal emission. The Johns Hopkins Rocket Group is developing a hydrogen absorption cell that would act as a narrow band Lyman-α rejection filter to enable space-based photometric observation in bandpasses that span over the Lyman ultraviolet region shortward of the geocoronal line. While this technology has been applied to various planetary missions with single element photomultiplier detectors it has yet to be used on near earth orbiting satellites with a multi-element detector. We are working to develop a cell that could be easily incorporated into future Lyman ultraviolet missions. The prototype cell is a low-pressure (∼ few torr) chamber sealed between a pair of MgF2 windows allowing transmission down to 1150 ̊A. It is filled with molecular hydrogen that is converted to its neutral atomic form in the presence of a hot tungsten filament, which allows for the absorption of the Lyman-α photons. Molecular hydrogen is stored in a fully saturated non-evaporable getter module (St707TM), which allows the cell pressure to be increased under a modest application of heat (a 20 degree rise from room temperature has produced a rise in pressure from 0.6 to 10 torr). Testing is now underway using a vacuum ultraviolet monochromator to characterize the cell optical depth to Lyman-α photons as functions of pressure and tungsten filament current. We will present these results, along with a discussion of enabled science in broadband photometric applications.

Gabriela Sato-Polito (JHU)

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