Secondary anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background detected with the South Pole Telescope, The SPT Team

The 10-meter South Pole Telescope is being used to obtain high sensitivity and high angular resolution images of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation over a large area of the sky. In previous studies the pristine view of the early universe provided by the CMB radiation has been used by astronomers to take a snapshot of the universe as it was 13.7 billion years ago, only a few hundred thousand years after the big bang. The SPT team has now turned this around and is looking for small angular scale distortions in the background radiation caused by the scattering of the fossil light off of the ionized gas associated with the most massive structures that have formed in the universe. By determining the level of this "secondary" CMB anisotropy, the SPT team has in turn provided an independent determination of the level of fluctuations in the distribution of the dark matter in the present universe. [more]