2006/06/09 by James G. Bartlett, Bartlett, James G.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0606241
Review talk given at the Rencontres de Moriond, "Contents and Structures of the Universe", La Thuile, Italy, March 18-25, 2006
arxiv created 2006/06/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
Galaxy clusters furnish extremely rich information on the contents and structure of our universe. The potential of galaxy cluster studies to constrain dark energy, for example, motivates a number of ambitious cluster surveys. Among these, surveys based on the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect are particularly powerful for their ability to cleanly select clusters out to redshifts z>1. Now poised to begin surveying substantial areas of sky, dedicated interferometers, bolometer cameras and the Planck satellite will soon produce large cluster catalogs that will provide a precise measure of the cosmic expansion rate over a range of redshifts and precipitate a new understanding of structure and galaxy formation. I review the science potential of these surveys and examine some issues of SZ cluster catalog construction.