Speaker: Gabi Sato-Polito (JHU)
New windows into cosmic history
Exploring the high-redshift Universe is one of the primary frontiers of both astrophysics and cosmology. A promising avenue to do so is known as Line-Intensity Mapping (LIM),which is an emerging observational technique undergoing a burst in experimental investment. By mapping all unresolved sources of a target spectral line over cosmological volumes, LIM can be used to refine our understanding of galaxy evolution and to trace the large-scale matter distribution at high redshifts. I will discuss how the unique characteristics of these measurements (e.g. wide redshift coverage, sensitivity to faint sources, and mapping speed) may enable a variety of scientific goals and some of the challenges in realizing them. I will then discuss intensity mapping in the broader context of probes of large-scale structure, focusing on the joint information across different spectral lines and across different tracers, such as galaxies and extragalactic CMB foregrounds.