IAU02244
Presentation type requested: ORAL
SUNYAEV ZEL'DOVICH EFFECT: STATUS AND FUTURE PROMISE
John E Carlstrom
University of Chicago
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) provides a unique way to map the large scale structure of the universe as traced by massive clusters of galaxies. As a spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background, the SZE is insensitive to the redshift of the galaxy cluster, making it well-suited for studies of clusters at all redshifts, and especially at reasonably high redshifts, (z > 1) where the abundance of clusters is critically dependent on the underlying cosmology. Recent high signal-to-noise detections of the SZE have enabled interesting constraints on the Hubble constant and the matter density of the universe using small samples of galaxy clusters. Upcoming SZE surveys are expected to find hundreds to thousands of new galaxy clusters, with a mass selection function that is remarkably uniform with redshift. This talk will review the SZE and its use for cosmological studies. The current observations will be reviewed as well as plans for conducting large untargeted surveys for clusters using new SZE instruments. Emphasis will be given to the cosmology that can, in principle, be investigated with upcoming SZE surveys and the observational and theoretical challenges which must be met before precise cosmological constraints can be extracted from the survey yields.
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