New Constraints on Cosmology from the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe

Main Colloquium
Dr. Sebastian Bocquet
SCHEDULED
LMU

With the latest generation of cosmological datasets, we are accessing an unprecedented wealth of information on the geometry and expansion of the universe and on the growth of cosmic structure. This has allowed for tight constraints on, e.g., the properties of neutrinos and dark energy, but also uncovered anomalies such as the Hubble tension and the S8 tension. The abundance of galaxy clusters, the clustering of galaxies, and weak gravitational lensing are key probes of the cosmic large-scale structure. Over the past decade, tremendous progress was made in obtaining high-precision measurements, notably thanks to sensitive wide-field surveys of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and of galaxies and gravitational lensing. Recently, the abundance of clusters selected in CMB data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) — in combination with mass calibration based on weak-lensing data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) — was shown to be compatible with and complementary to analyses of galaxy clustering and weak lensing (3x2pt using, e.g., DES data). In my talk, I will review the SPT cluster cosmology and mass calibration program. I will focus on the latest SPT + DES + HST analysis and discuss the resulting cosmological constraints. I will then present new results from the multiprobe analysis of SPT clusters and DES 3x2pt. The precision of these new constraints highlights the benefits of multiwavelength multiprobe cosmology and our work paves the way for upcoming joint analyses of next-generation datasets.

Sulphur-bearing molecules in massive star-forming molecular clumps

Master Colloquium
Camilla di Giusto
SCHEDULED
MPIfR

Sulphur-bearing species could be used as evolutionary tracers of high-mass star formation. In this context, we studied the molecular emission and absorption of S-bearing species towards Galactic high-mass star-forming clumps. We analyzed spectroscopic observations obtained with the APEX telescope and the SOFIA mission towards 131 clumps of the ATLASGAL survey at 870 μm. Among those, the ATLASGAL "Top100" sample contains the brightest sources in all evolutionary stages of the high-mass star formation process. We detected rotational line transitions of ortho-H2S, para-H2S, OCS, SO and H2CS. While most of the spectra showed single Gaussian emission, signatures of outflows, self-absorption and infalling/expanding envelopes were also found. Assuming LTE conditions, the column densities and abundances of each species were derived. The species abundances showed a loose correlation with the luminosity and evolutionary stage of the clumps. In addition, the ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of H2S was determined using H2S low frequency lines but found to be degenerate with temperature. By assuming a thermalized OPR value of 3, temperatures of the order of 100 K were found for the H2S emission, pointing to a hot core origin. The spherical non-LTE radiative transfer model RATRAN was used to study the H2S line profiles. However, the model did not reproduce well the observed spectra suggesting a more complex source morphology.