Title:

Searching in the Dark: Energy and Matter in the Universe.


Andrew Connolly
University of Pittsburgh


Abstract:

The Astrophysical sciences are witnessing a flood of data from new
ground and spaced based surveys. With access to data sets spanning from
X-rays through to radio wavelengths we are now able to extract data from
any region of the sky and measure the properties of these sources across
the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Individually, each of
these huge data sources are leading to major advances in our
understanding of the processes that drive the formation and evolution of
the Universe. It is only, however, when these data are combined - by
collating observations from several different surveys - that their full
scientific potential will finally be realized. In this talk I will
discuss how these multi-frequency data sets are being used to detect the
imprint of dark energy on the growth of structure in the universe. I
will present new results that challenge our current views on the
clustering of galaxies and will show that our surveys represent just the
initial steps in understanding the evolution of our universe.