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Past Colloquia

Feb 27 – Colloquium Cancelled

Cody Hall, AB 107

Sarah Burke-Spolaor (West Virginia University)

February 27, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled. Our apologies for any inconvenience.  Original Posting: “Binary supermassive black holes: the hunt is on” We are seeking both light and gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes, the biggest, meanest discrete binary systems in the Universe. When two…

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Colloquium with Rebecca Jensen-Clem

Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto

Rebecca Jensen-Clem

February 13, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

In the last thirty years, over 3000 planets have been discovered orbiting nearby stars. This flood of new worlds includes planets unlike any found in our own Solar System, from Jupiter-mass planets with years as short as our day to exotic rocky worlds twice as…

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Colloquium with Adam Anderson

MP 202, University of Toronto

Adam Anderson

February 11, 2019
11:00am - 12:00pm

Rapid advances in superconducting detector technology and readout electronics are enabling a new generation of significantly more sensitive measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. These measurements will provide constraints on inflation, the nature of neutrinos, and a broad range of astrophysical topics….

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Measuring CMB Polarization with SPIDER, Taurus, and CMB-S4

Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto

Johanna Nagy, Dunlap Institute

February 06, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

The polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is a powerful probe of the composition and evolution of the Universe.  Recent advances in instrumentation are enabling measurements with unprecedented precision and exquisite control of systematic errors.  In this talk, I will discuss what we can…

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Probing the early universe: mm-wavelength cosmology from inflation to the epoch of reionization and beyond.

MP 202, University of Toronto

Abigail Crites, California Institute of Technology

February 04, 2019
11:00am - 12:00pm

I will describe how I use mm-wavelength instruments (both spectrometers and photometers) to explore our universe across cosmic time. I will discuss instrument projects such as SPT, CMB-S4, TIME, and future even more powerful mm-wavelength spectrometers that will allow us to probe the universe, from…

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Precision Cosmology with the Cosmic Microwave Background

MS3153, Medical Sciences Building, 1 King's College Circle

Sara Simon, University of Michigan

January 31, 2019
2:00pm - 3:00pm

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides unparalleled views into the early universe and its later evolution. Recent and ongoing experiments have contributed to our understanding of neutrinos, dark energy, and dark matter through measurements of large-scale structure imprinted on the CMB and constrained the conditions…

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Directly Imaging Exoplanetary Systems in Polarized Light

MP202

Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

January 28, 2019
11:00am - 12:00pm

In the past twenty years we have discovered nearly 4000 extrasolar planets, allowing us to begin to answer fundamental questions about our place in the universe. These discoveries have largely been fueled by the development and refinement of planet detection techniques such as the transit,…

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Dark Matter Throughout Cosmic History

Cody Hall, AB 107

Vera Gluscevic (University of Florida)

January 16, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Ours is a dark Universe: its astrophysical systems are but a minor addition to dark matter, whose abundance six times outweighs all other particles in the Universe. The physical nature of dark matter is a pressing question, whose answer will likely lead to discovery of…

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The Transient Universe: Cosmic Explosions and Dark Energy

Cody Hall, AB 107

Mark Sullivan (University of Southampton)

December 12, 2018
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Type Ia supernovae have long been used as probes of the expansion history of the universe. Their standardisable luminosities make them very attractive as distance measures, and they remain indispensable in constraining the properties of dark energy. In this talk, I will give an update…

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Planet Formation as told by Kepler

Cody Hall, AB 107

Eve J. Lee (California Institute of Technology)

December 05, 2018
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

One of the key results from the Kepler mission is that super-Earths and sub-Neptunes abound in the universe, outnumbering their larger counterparts. Their radii (~1–4 Rearth) and masses (~2–20 Mearth) are consistent with the bulk solid-to-gas mass ratio of 100:1. Basic astrophysical considerations of gas…

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