Craig Lawrie with John Ruhl

Cluster Detection in Maps Generated by the South Pole Telescope

Further constraints on cosmological parameters are progressed by determining the abundance of galaxy clusters in the universe.  Bayesian analysis is applied to maps generated by the South Pole Telescope (SPT), to locate and classify galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect.  The SPT is a 10-meter telescope that can scan a 4000 square degree solid angle at 95 GHz, 150 GHz, and 225 GHz.  The SZ effect is the result of CMB radiation passing through galaxy clusters.  Tasks include programming an MCMC routine, finding and counting galaxy clusters, and determining the fraction of total clusters were detected.