HEP - ASTRO SEMINAR | Cosmology with the ACTPol Experiment

ACTPol is a new polarization sensitive receiver for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) which is located at 17,600 feet in northern Chile.  ACTPol was deployed last summer and is currently being used to measure the CMB polarization on arcminute scales. These measurements will provide improved constraints on cosmological parameters including inflationary parameters, dark energy, curvature, and the neutrino mass sum.  In addition, ACTPol will be ~4x more sensitive than the previous ACT receiver at 150 GHz, enabling improved CMB temperature science, such as surveys for galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.  I will describe the science goals and status of the instrument and highlight the contributions we are making here at Michigan.