Astronomy

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Astronomy Astrophysics at Chicago
PSD Visiting Committee October 2006
Rocky Kolb Department of Astronomy Astrophysics
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Department of Astronomy Astrophysics History
Chicago put the physics in astrophysics
1895 Astrophysical Journal Hale James Keeler
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• 1905
• Hale leaves for Mt. Wilson/Caltech
• 1910-1925
• Slow decline of Department
• 1908 - 60 Mt. Wilson
• 1919 - 100 Mt. Wilson
• -1934
• McDonald 1M bequest to U. Texas
• Texas/Chicago 25-year agreement
• to build/operate McDonald Observatory
• 1935-1960
• Reinvigoration of Department,
• e.g., hire Chandrasekhar!
• 1960-1965
• Slow decline of Department

Yerkes Staff 1917
Yerkes Staff 1938
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Who we are
Astronomy Astrophysics Center
32 Graduate Students (plus large number
from Physics)
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A Distinguished Department

• Latest (1993) NRC Rankings
• Caltech
• Princeton
• Berkeley
• Harvard
• Chicago

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A Distinguished Faculty
Nobel Prize MacArthur Fellowships United States
National Medal of Science Royal Astronomical
Society Gold Medal Kyoto Prize Members of the
National Academy of Science Gruber Prize Fellows
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Fellows of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science NASA Medal for
Exceptional Scientific Achievement James S.
McDonnell Centennial Fellowship David and Lucile
Packard Fellowship National Science Foundation
Department of Energy INCITE Award Bruce Medal of
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Warner
Prize Emme Award Bowie Medal NSF Career
Award . . . .
We will have 16 retirements in the next 20 years.
It will be a new Department!
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Where We Call Home
Yerkes
Yerkes Observatory (constructed in
1892) Astronomy Astrophysics Center (converted
computer center built in 1960s) Accelerator
Building (constructed in 1950s for Chicago
Cyclotron) Research Institutes (constructed in
1950s for Fermi and Franck Institutes) Laboratory
for Astrophysics and Space Research (constructed
in 1960s for space physics research) PlusFermila
b, Argonne, Adler, Searle
LASR
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What We Do
Veritas, Arizona
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What We Do
Public Outreach
Numerical (FLASH)
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What We Do
Theory
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age380,000 yrs
age0
today
opaque
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More than 380,000 light years in less than
380,000 years?
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The proper vibrations of the expanding universe
Erwin Schrödinger, Physica 6, 899 (1939)
Introduction
proper vibrations positive and negative
frequencies cannot be rigorously separated in
the expanding universe. this is a phenomenon
of outstanding importance. With particles it
would mean production or annihilation of matter,
merely by expansion, Alarmed by these
prospects, I have examined the matter in more
detail.
Conclusion
There will be a mutual adulteration of
positive and negative frequency terms in the
course of time, giving rise to the alarming
phenomenon
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Quantum Vacuum
Uncertainty in the
W
W-
e-
quark
e
anti-quark
anti particle
particle
Nothing is something!
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Disturbing the vacuum
Strong gravitational field particle
production (Hawking radiation)
Black Hole
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A pattern of vacuum quantum fluctuations (the
alarming phenomenon)
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Did the Universe Inflate?

• Inflationary prediction of temperature
  fluctuations (Turner)
• COBE discovery (Meyer) 2006 Nobel Prize
• First confirmation of COBE (Meyer)
• Theoretical formalism for extracting information
  from CMB (Hu)
• Follow on expts and discovery of CMB
  polarization and confirmation of BBN
• Theory Schramm, Turner
• Experiment Carlstrom, Pryke
• Effect on structure formation SDSS (Frieman)
• WMAP (Meyer) 2006 Gruber Prize
• SDSS WMAP
• Testing inflation and reconstruction (Turner,
  Kolb)
• Going for the B modes (Meyer, Carlstrom, Pryke)
• Next Nobel ??

Collaborations, interdisciplinary work,
multi-wavelength work The Chicago Style!
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What We Do
Theory
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Todays Cosmic Questions
What is dark matter? What is dark energy? What
are the ultra-high energy cosmic rays?
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Chemical Elements (other than H He) 0.03
Cosmic Pie
Neutrinos 0.47
Stars 0.5
Free H He 4
Dark Matter 25
95 Dark
Dark Energy 70
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Strategic Issues
Biggest issues

• Geographic dispersal on campus
• Optical Telescope Access

Other issues

• Graduate student recruitment
• Faculty recruitment and retention
• Public outreach

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Dark Energy, Dark Matter UHE Cosmic Rays
Putting the pieces together
The Chicago Style Interdisciplinary,
multi-wavelength, physics-based
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the
universe and may hold the key to Understanding
dark matter and dark energy

• Carlstrom travels to the South Pole to observe
  galaxy clusters with the SPT
• Cronin and Olinto travel to Argentina to observe
  UHE Cosmic rays at Auger
• Chen and Gladders travel to Chile to observe
  clusters with large optical telescopes
• Frieman travels to Chile to observe clusters
  with a smaller survey telescope
• Kravstov uses supercomputers in Germany to
  simulate cluster formation evolution
• On campus, Turner and Kolb develop theories for
  dark matter in clusters

No one piece will hold the key The solution will
require putting the pieces together Dispersal of
faculty and students is an obstacle
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Access to Big Glass

• Individual research programs
• Faculty recruitment and retention
• Graduate student recruitment
• Part of the Chicago multi-wavelength,
  interdisciplinary
• approach to the big questions

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Access to Resources in Astronomy
Astronomy is a public/private partnership
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INSTITUTION RESOURCE Caltech
166 California
153Arizona 133Carnegie Obs.
106Hawaii 81Texas
58Smithsonian 43Harvard 42Penn
State 35Ohio State 33Wisconsin
22Michigan 21MIT 17Minnesota
13 North Carolina 12 Notre
Dame 12
INSTITUTION RESOURCE Stanford
12Rutgers 11 Florida
11Dartmouth 10Virginia
8Michigan State 6Yale
5Cornell 4 Indiana
4Washington 4Carnegie Mellon
3CHICAGO 3New Mexico St.
2Princeton 2Johns Hopkins
2Colorado 2
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INSTITUTION RESOURCE
PER FACULTY North Carolina 0.86
Carnegie Mellon 0.81 Minnesota
0.77 Florida 0.69 Michigan State
0.62 Indiana 0.61 MIT
0.51 Virginia 0.46 Washington
0.29 Yale 0.28 New Mexico
0.25 Cornell 0.17 Princeton
0.14 CHICAGO 0.12 Johns Hopkins
0.12 Colorado 0.08
INSTITUTION RESOURCE
PER FACULTY Carnegie Obs. 8.8 Caltech
6.9 Wisconsin 4.4 Arizona 3.1 Texas
2.6 Harvard
2.4 Dartmouth 1.7 Ohio State
1.6 Hawaii 1.5 Notre Dame
1.5 Smithsonian 1.4 Penn State
1.3 California 1.3 Michigan
1.2 Rutgers 1.0 Stanford
1.0
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INSTITUTION RESOURCE (NRC ranking)
PER FACULTY North Carolina 0.86 Carnegie
Mellon 0.81 Minnesota
0.77 Florida 0.69 Michigan State
0.62 Indiana 0.61 MIT (8)
0.51 Virginia 0.46 Washington
0.29 Yale 0.28 New Mexico
0.25 Cornell (9) 0.17 Princeton (2)
0.14 CHICAGO (5) 0.12 Johns
Hopkins 0.12 Colorado (12)
0.08
INSTITUTION RESOURCE (NRC ranking)
PER FACULTY Carnegie Obs. 8.8 Caltech
(1) 6.9 Wisconsin 4.4 Arizona (7) 3.1 Texas
(10) 2.6 Harvard (4)
2.4 Dartmouth
1.7 Ohio State 1.6 Hawaii (11)
1.5 Notre Dame 1.5 Smithsonian 1.4 P
enn State 1.3 California (3,6)
1.3 Michigan 1.2 Rutgers
1.0 Stanford 1.0
Berkeley3 Santa Cruz6
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Princeton
Johns Hopkins
Washington
Colorado
Hubble Chandra Spitzer Fellows per Faculty
CHICAGO
Yale
New Mexico
Cornell
Resources per Faculty
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Johns Hopkins
Washington
HST Programs per Faculty
Colorado
New Mexico
Yale
Princeton
CHICAGO
Cornell
Resources per Faculty
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Bigger is Better
Today we are in the era of 8-meter
telescopes figure of merit is area
(diameter)2 roughly a dozen in the
world dominated by private access Chicago has
no private access to 8-meter class telescopes
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Make No Small Plans
Plans underway to construct 20 meter 30 meter
telescopes two or three in the world dominated
by private access Chicago is not part of the
action
GMT
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Strategic Issues
Biggest issues

• Geographic dispersal on campus
• Optical Telescope Access

Solutions

• Center for Astrophysics and Cosmology
• Programming exercise underway
• Draft Brochure
• Please comment on Draft
• Optical Telescope Access
• Committee headed by Roger Hildebrand to recommend
• near-term solution
• long-term plans
• Report imminent

Other issues

• Graduate student recruitment
• Faculty recruitment and retention
• Public outreach

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Astronomy Astrophysics at Chicago
PSD Visiting Committee October 2006
Rocky Kolb Department of Astronomy Astrophysics
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1 Cal Tech 4.91 2 Princeton 4.79 3 Cal
Berkeley 4.65 4 Harvard 4.49 5 Chicago
4.36 6 Cal Santa Cruz 4.31 7 Arizona
4.10 8 MIT 4.00 9 Cornell 3.98 10
Texas 3.65
11 Hawaii 3.60 12 Colorado 3.54 13
Illinois 3.53 14 Wisconsin 3.46 15 Yale
3.31 16 UCLA 3.27 17 Virginia 3.23 18
Columbia 3.20 19 Maryland 3.07 20
Massachusetts 3.04