# Presentation: 595871

## Theoretical Astrophysics 

***Theoretical Astrophysics Group ***
***Fermi National Laboratory***
***stebbins@fnal.gov***

**Theoretical Astrophysics **
**Group @ Fermilab**

**Annual DOE Review**
**September 26, 2007**

## Head: 			Albert Stebbins
Deputy Head: 			Nick Gnedin
Other Scientists: 		Scott Dodelson 			Joshua Frieman
				Dan Hooper			 NEW   promoted from Schramm Fellow
					Ted Baltz
					Darren Croton
					Olivier Dore
					Dragan Huterer
					Patrick McDonald
					Jeff Newman
					Hiranya Peiris

David Schramm Fellow:
				vacant	Hy Trac 		lost to Harvard/CfA

Postdoctoral Fellows:
				Emiliano Sefussati 		
			 	Pasquale Serpico			
				Chris Vale
				Mark Jackson			NEW shared w/ Particle Theory Group
				Hee-Jong Seo 			NEW (Arizona Ph.D.)
					Ryan Scranton 		stayed w/ Google

turned down	  

- Deputy Head: 			Nick Gnedin
- Other Scientists: 		Scott Dodelson 			Joshua Frieman
- 				Dan Hooper			 _NEW_   promoted from Schramm Fellow
- 					Ted Baltz
- 					Darren Croton
- 					Olivier Dore
- 					Dragan Huterer
- 					Patrick McDonald
- 					Jeff Newman
- 					Hiranya Peiris
- David Schramm Fellow:
- 				vacant	Hy Trac 		lost to Harvard/CfA
- Postdoctoral Fellows:
- 				Emiliano Sefussati
- 			 	Pasquale Serpico
- 				Chris Vale
- 				Mark Jackson			_NEW_ shared w/ Particle Theory Group
- 				Hee-Jong Seo 			_NEW_ (**Arizona** Ph.D.)
- 					Ryan Scranton 		stayed w/ Google
- turned down

- Who We Are

## What We Do?

-  **Environment:**** ** Foster exciting, innovative, focused intellectual environment.
-  Mix of staff scientists, postdocs, and long term visitors/students.
-  Seminars, workshops, short term visitors.
-  Individual participation in external collaborations and conferences.
** ****Productivity:** produce new scientific results, support lab programs/projects.
-  Scientific publications.
-  New projects (played important role SDSS I&II, SNAP, DES, Auger)
-  **Citizenship: **support of scientific infrastructure (lab/Chicagoland/U.S./world)
-  Education/Outreach:  teaching (U.C., summer schools), students (U.C.,Colorado,Howard,IMSA), books, public lectures.
-  Quality Control: Refereeing/Editing, Grant/Program Reviews
-  Making the Future: CenterforParticleAstrophysics, committees (DarkEnergyTaskForce).

## Astrophysics @ FNAL

- Theoretical
- Astrophysics
- Group

- Experimental
- Astrophysics
- Group

- Sloan Digital
- Sky Survey
- (SDSS)

- Dark
- Energy
- Survey
- (DES)

- SuperNova
- Acceleration
- Probe
- (SNAP)

- Cryogenic Dark
- Matter Search
- (CDMS)

- The Pierre
- Auger Project

- Fermilab
- Center for Particle
- Astrophysics

- Chicagoland
- Observatory for
- Underground
- Particle Physics
- (COUPP)

- GammeV

## What We Do?

- materials and services (FY06)

- 4 Scientists
- 1 Associate Scientist
- 4.5 Research Associates
- FY07 personnel costs
- w/o OH “~$0.9M”
- Emerging fCPA
-  complicates budgetary #s.

## External Funding

- Some staff have part in grants @ Uchicago for students, etc.
- Many visitors come with their own money.
- Interest in area Joint Postdocs (ANL, NWU).
- Astro Computing initiative is a collaboration w/ U.C. (growth: ANL, LANL, LBNL, ...? )
- won FRA grant.
- _Trying_ small focused grant proposals to NASA
*Searching for Particle Identity of Dark Matter* - Hooper
*Modeling Reionization of Helium* - Gnedin

## What We Do?Research  Publications

**01) Prospects For Detecting Dark Matter With GLAST In Light Of The WMAP Haze**.
**02) Clustering properties of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and the search for their astrophysical sources.**
**03) Predictions for the Cosmogenic Neutrino Flux in Light of New Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory.**
**04) The Mass Of The Coma Cluster From Weak Lensing In The Sloan Digital Sky Survey.**
**05) The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Technical Summary.**
**06) The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search. 2. Statistical Lens Sample from the Third Data Release.**
**07) The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search. 3. Constraints on Dark Energy from the Third Data Release Quasar Lens Catalog.**
**08) A New Constraint on the Escape Fraction in Distant Galaxies Using Gamma-ray Burst Afterglow Spectroscopy.**
**09) Escape of Ionizing Radiation from High Redshift Galaxies.**
**10) High Energy neutrino signals from the Epoch of Reionization.**
**11) Spinless photon dark matter from two universal extra dimensions.**
**12) Detecting Axion-Like Particles With Gamma Ray Telescopes.**
**13) Evidence for nearby universe structures in the ultrahigh energy sky.**
**14) Interactions of cosmic superstrings.**
**15) Evidence Of Dark Matter Annihilations In The WMAP Haze.**
**16) The bispectrum of galaxies from high-redshift galaxy surveys: Primordial non-Gaussianity and non-linear galaxy bias.**
**17) PArthENoPE: Public Algorithm Evaluating the Nucleosynthesis of Primordial Elements.**
**18) Signatures of axion-like particles in the spectra of TeV gamma-ray sources.**
**19) MeV Dark Matter and Small Scale Structure.**
**20) A discriminating probe of gravity at cosmological scales.**
**21) The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog. 4. Fifth Data Release.**
**22) Modeling the three-point correlation function.**
**23) Cosmological Constraints from SDSS maxBCG Cluster Abundances.**
**24) CMB Spectral Distortions from the Scattering of Temperature Anisotropies.**
**25) Impact of astrophysical processes on the gamma-ray background from dark matter annihilations.**
**26) High-energy neutrinos from astrophysical accelerators of cosmic ray nuclei.**
**27) Weak Lensing of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.**
**28) Angular Signatures of Dark Matter in the Diffuse Gamma Ray Spectrum.**
**29) The path to metallicity: Synthesis of CNO elements in standard BBN.**
**30) New constraints on neutrino masses from cosmology.**
**31) Cosmological neutrino mass detection: The Best probe of neutrino lifetime.**
**32) The Signature of Large Scale Structures on the Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Sky.**
**33) The Peculiar SN 2005hk: Do Some Type Ia Supernovae Explode as Deflagrations?**
**34) Cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure constraints on a simple quintessential inflation model.**
**35) The 8 O'clock Arc: A Serendipitous Discovery of a Strongly Lensed Lyman Break Galaxy in the SDSS DR4 Imaging Data.**
**36) First hints of large scale structures in the ultrahigh energy sky?**
**37) Star Formation in a Cosmological Simulation of Reionization.**
**38) Scaling Relations of Dwarf Galaxies without Supernova-Driven Winds.**
**THEORY****	****	****TECHNIQUES****	****	****DATA****	****	****DATA INTEPRETATION**

## What We Do?Seminar Series - now shared w/ CPA

**Gordon**** -**** ****Isotropy from a Linear Modulation of the Primordial Perturbations**
**Roszkowski**** - ****Solution to the Omega_b - Omega_ M Coincidence Puzzle**
**Dodelson**** - ****Dark Matter vs. Modified Gravity**** **
**Scoccimarro - ****Nonlinear Evolution of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations**** **
**Calcagni**** - ****Tachyon dark energy models: Dynamics and constraints**** **
**Abazajian ****Dark Matter in the Neutrino Sector: Sterile Neutrinos**
**Boylan-Kolchin - ****The Assembly of Massive Galaxies and their Central Black Holes**
**Poznanski**** - ****SN progenitors and rates from low-cost surveys with no spectroscopy**
**Conroy - ****Modeling Galaxy Clustering and the Build-up of Stellar Mass Through Cosmic Time**
**Razoumov -**** ****From small to large scales at high redshifts: escape of ionizing photons and absorption properties of young galaxies**** **
**Gorodetzky**** -  ****EUSO: Resurrection then maybe Ascension instead of Cosmic Vision**
**Klypin - ****Motion of satellites of galaxies: Newton against MOND**
**Babich -****The Inhomogeneous Nature of Reionization**** **
**Oh - ****New views of the High-Redshift Universe**
**Evrard - ****Two Reports on Galaxy Clusters: the Halo Virial Scaling Relation and Red Sequence Cluster Finding**
**Blondin - ****Determining the Type, Redshift, and Phase of a Supernova Spectrum**
**Lim - ****Large Non-gaussianities from Single Field Inflation**
**Rigopoulos**** - ****The evolution of non-linear perturbations in inflation**
**Stojkovic - ****Black Hole Formation, Evaporation and the Information Loss Paradox**
**Wu**** - ****First Results from MAXIPOL and Status of AMiBA**
**Voit - ****Galaxy Clusters Scaling Relations and Cosmology**
**Seo - ****Probing dark energy with baryon acoustic oscillations from future large galaxy redshift surveys**
**Trac - ****Radiative transfer simulations of cosmic reionization**
**Dall'Aglio**** - ****The Proximity Effect in high redshift QSOs, Observations and Simulations**
**Ferrer - ****Indirect detection of light neutralino dark matter**
**Weller**** - ****Cosmology with Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Galaxy Cluster Counts**
**Stebbins**** - ****An Anthropocentric Universe?**
**Dore - ****Cosmological Microwave Background: the Next Chapter**
**Cirelli**** - ****Cosmological constraints on light sterile neutrinos (and the ways around them)**** **
**Shi**** - ****LAMOST (Large Aperture Multiple-Object Survey Telescope) project**
**Kistler - ****High-Energy Neutrinos: Spawn of Cosmic Rays**** **
**Newman - ****DEEP2 and Beyond: Testing Fundamental Physics with Surveys**
**Croton - ****How to model the Universe in N easy steps (N>>1)**
**McDonald - ****Probing inflation, dark matter, dark energy, etc. using the Lyman-alpha forest**
**Bradac - ****Shedding Light on Dark Matter: Seeing the Invisible with Gravitational Lensing**
**Peiris**** - ****Understanding Cosmic Acceleration: Connecting Theory and Observation**
**Siegel - ****Probing Dark Matter Substructure with Pulsars**** **
**Trotta**** - ****Constraining dark energy - observational status and prospects**
**Pavlodou**** - ****Deciphering the GeV Sky: Gamma-Ray Astronomy in the Era of GLAST**** **
**Perez**** - ****Warped DGP: self acceleration, ghosts and other beasts**** **
**Horan**** - ****VERITAS: Current Status and Future Plans**
**Strigari - ****Determining the Nature of Dark Matter with Astrometry**
**Profumo - ****Probing Supersymmetric Baryogenesis: from Electric Dipole Moments to Neutrino Telescopes**
**Pocar - ****The status of the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO)**
**Kuhlen - ****The Via Lactea simulation -- DM (sub)structure in the Milky Way**
**Thomson - ****Observation of the GZK Cutoff by the HiRes Experiment**
**Donato**** - ****New Physics in Cosmic Rays**
**Friedland - ****Having fun with neutrinos in cosmology and supernova**
**Lunardini - ****The diffuse supernova neutrino background**** **
**Pallavicini**** - ****Status of the Borexino experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso**
**Vanden Berk - ****Seeing the Sky Swiftly: Gamma-Ray Bursts and Beyond with the Swift Observatory**
**Shapiro**** - ****The Cosmological Constant Problems and Renormalization Group**

-   7 Local Talent
- 31 Inside N. America
- 14 Outside N. America

- Theory
- Numerical Experiment
- Observational Techniques
- Observations: present/future

## What We Do

- Theoretical Astrophysics’ key role in creating new projects @ FNAL
-  **SDSS** circa 1990-2005
-  Kolb, Turner, Schramm played a important role in starting SDSS
-  **SDSS II** 2005-
-  The SDSS extension seems likely to go ahead and contains 3 main projects
-  Legacy - fill in the gap in original SDSS survey area
-  Supernova search - find intermediate redshift Type Ia SNe
-  SEGUE - Galactic structure
-  The 1st 2 (new) science products crucial in justifying extension
-  one prime mover behind the SNe search was Frieman!
-  **Dark Energy Survey** (DES) 2004-
-  Frieman one of the prime movers behind DES (1st on VISTA then Blanco)
-  Frieman, Dodelson, and Stebbins among “authors” of project proposal
-  **Cosmological Computing Initiative** 2006-
-  Gnedin, Dodelson and Kravtsov started this nascent project.
-  Comparatively small $, but may have real impact on U.S. cosmology.
-  **Future Projects ...**
- Varying amount of service work for projects once established
-  Frieman has done an lot of this.

## What We Do

- Organize/Host Workshops/Conferences/Schools
- 05/07 Searching for Strong Lenses in Large Imaging Surveys*
- 05/07 The Hunt for Dark Matter*
- 05/06 External Correlations of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Cosmology
- 07/05 TeV Particle Astrophysics*
- 12/04 Fundamental Physics from Clusters of Galaxies
- 05/04 From Zero to Z0: A Workshop on Precision Electroweak Physics*
- 11/03 de Sitter Days
- 10/02 Neutrino News From the Lab and the Cosmos
- 09/02 COSMO-02: International Workshop on Particle Physics and the Early Universe
- 05/01 Workshop on Structure Formation and Dark Matter Halos
- 05/99 Inner Space/Outer Space II
- 01/99 Pritzker Symposium & Workshop
- 09/98 Young Scholars Institute in Astroparticle Physics
- 12/96 18th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics
- 12/96 Weak Lensing Workshop
- 04/96 Solar Neutrino Workshop
- ...
- 05/87 Quantum Cosmology Workshop
- 12/86 13th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics
- 12/86 Workshop on Cosmic Strings
- 05/84 Inner Space/Outer Space I
- * Recent workshops collaboration w/ other groups in the laboratory.

## What We Do

- Imitation is sincerest form of flattery:

## What We Do

- Train Postdocs

## What We Do

- Ph.D. Students
- While we don’t really support students - this is the natural fallout of the vibrant research environment and our close connection with the University of Chicago.
- Dodelson
- Kimberly Coble- professor Chicago State University
- Eduardo Rozo - postdoc OSU
- Ryan Scranton - Google
- Frieman
- Andrew Jaffe - professor Imperial College, London
- Michael Joffre - lawyer
- David Johnston - postdoc CalTech
- Roman Scoccimarro - professor NYU
- Craig Wiegert - adjunct professor, University of Georgia, Athens
- Gnedin
- Robyn Levine - student University of Colorado, resident at Fermilab
- Hui
- Adam Lidz - postdoc Harvard University
- Jun Zhang - postdoc University of California, Berkeley
- Kolb
- Eun-Joo Sein Ahn - postdoc Bartol Research Institute
- James Chisholm - postdoc University of Florida, Gainesville
- Daniel Chung - professor University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Patrick Crotty - postdoc LAPP Annecy, France
- Lloyd Knox - professor University of California, Davis
- Alberto Vallinotto - postdoc Institut d’Astrophysique, Paris
- Terry Walker - professor OSU
- Turner...

## What We Do

- Education/Outreach

## What We Do

- Art/Outreach

- “Arguably the best image in Google Sky!”

- Google Earth Front Page News: earth.google.com

## Inflation

- Non-Baryonic Dark Matter

- Dark Energy

- Neutrino Masses

- Extra Dimensions

- Rotation Velocities

- Galaxy Clusters

- Matter Distribution in Universe

- CMB Anisotropies

- Type Ia Supernovae Brightness

- Light Element Abundances

- Gravity Waves

- UHECR

- Local Abundance

- Accelerator Production

- Gravitational Lensing

- Extra Dimensions

- Solar & Atmospheric 

- Physics Beyond the Standard Model

- Phenomena

- Fundamentals

- SUSY

- String Theory

- GUTs

- Quantum Gravity

- Uncertainties

- Galaxy/Star/BH Formation

- Reionization

- Non-linear
- clustering/hydro

## Understand Reionization: escape of ionizing radiation from Milky Way like galaxy @ hi z.

- Gnedin, Kravtsov & Chen ‘07

- Understand Inflation: Disentangling bias, non-linear clustering, and primordial non-Gaussianity.

- Sefusatti & Komatsu ‘07

- e.g. higher
- derivative
- inflation

## Cosmological Computing Initiative

**Gnedin & Kravtsov**
**Kuhlmann ANL**
**Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Group**

**Cosmological Computing Initiative**

- 300 kpc

- 3 kpc

- 30 kpc

**A****daptive****R****efinement****T****ree**

- Topic of Opportunity
-  Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
-  Galaxy Cluster Counts
-  Weak Gravitational Lensing
-  Galaxy Formation and Evolution
-  First Star and Reionization of the Universe
-  Supermassive Black Holes At Centers of Galaxies

- Rudd & Kravtsov

## Cosmological Computing Initiative

- Other groups, in particular Virgo Consortium (U.K./Germany) CITA (Canada) have better resources.
-   We have natural allies in U.S., Spain, ...

## Cosmological Computing Initiative

**think big / think global!**

## Summary and Conclusions

-  Hooper has added need breadth in permanent staff.
-  Real progress in computational astrophysics/hardware
-  Closer ties with
-  Particle Theory
-  Experiments in Center
-  Fundamental physics & collider program.
**GOALS:**
-  Keep high level/productivity in theory research
-  Support nascent projects (DES, SNAP, Computing)
-  In particular push SNAP for JDEM decision.
-  Be on lookout for new project opportunities for FNAL
**OUTLOOK**
-  Choice of CPA Director will effect staffing.
-  One can see a vibrant future for at least a10 years.

**Summary and Conclusions**