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Bradford A. Benson

Wilson Fellow and Associate Scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; KICP Senior member

Ph.D., Physics, Stanford University, 2004
 
Contact Information
Phone: (773) 702-6452
Location: ERC 435
Email: bbensonastro.uchicago.edu
WWW: Web Site

 
Research
Picture: Research
At the South Pole.
I am an experimental cosmologist and mm-wavelength astronomer whose research focuses on studies of structure formation, and measurements of fine-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropy.

I am interested in the following questions: What is the nature of dark energy? What is the energy scale of Inflation? What is the mass of the neutrino? What was the nature of the first stars, galaxies, and active galactic nuclei in the universe? How did they affect the growth of cosmic structures?

In his free time, Brad loves to travel, hike, and see live music. His favorite place to visit for hiking and adventure is New Zealand (on his way to the South Pole), and loves seeing music at classic Chicago venues like Thalia Hall and the Empty Bottle.

Ongoing Scientific Projects:

Past Scientific Projects: Interferometric Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Imaging Experiment (SZE)

 
KICP Highlights & News

 
Talks, Lectures, & Workshops

 
Students
Past Students

UNDERGRADUATE: Alexander Droster (2017), Carina Baker (2014)

 
Currently in Committees
  • Fellowship committee
  • Conferences, Workshops and Visitors committee

 
KICP Publications
2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008


Latest Journal Publications
  1. "The SPTpol Extended Cluster Survey", arXiv:1910.04121 (Oct 2019)
  2. "Measurements of B-mode Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background from 500 Square Degrees of SPTpol Data", arXiv:1910.05748 (Oct 2019)
  3. "An X-ray Detection of Star Formation In a Highly Magnified Giant Arc", arXiv:1910.05343 (Oct 2019)
  4. "Constraints on Cosmological Parameters from the 500 deg$^2$ SPTpol Lensing Power Spectrum", arXiv:1910.07157 (Oct 2019)
  5. "CMB-S4", Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, APC white papers, no. 209; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 51, Issue 7, id. 209 (2019) (Sep 2019)
  6. "Measurement of the splashback feature around SZ-selected Galaxy clusters with DES, SPT, and ACT", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 487, Issue 2, p.2900-2918 (Aug 2019)
  7. "Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Cross-correlation between Dark Energy Survey Y1 galaxy weak lensing and South Pole Telescope+P l a n c k CMB weak lensing", Physical Review D, Volume 100, Issue 4, id.043517 (Aug 2019)
  8. "Compact millimeter-wavelength Fourier-transform spectrometer", Applied Optics, vol. 58, issue 23, p. 6257 (Aug 2019)
  9. "Measurements of the Cross-spectra of the Cosmic Infrared and Microwave Backgrounds from 95 to 1200 GHz", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 881, Issue 2, article id. 96, 12 pp. (2019) (Aug 2019)
  10. "Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Tomographic cross-correlations between Dark Energy Survey galaxies and CMB lensing from South Pole Telescope +Planck", Physical Review D, Volume 100, Issue 4, id.043501 (Aug 2019)
  11. "Dark Energy Survey year 1 results: Joint analysis of galaxy clustering, galaxy lensing, and CMB lensing two-point functions", Physical Review D, Volume 100, Issue 2, id.023541 (Jul 2019)
  12. "Cosmological lensing ratios with DES Y1, SPT, and Planck", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 487, Issue 1, p.1363-1379 (Jul 2019)
  13. "Consistency of cosmic microwave background temperature measurements in three frequency bands in the 2500-square-degree SPT-SZ survey", Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Issue 07, article id. 038 (2019) (Jul 2019)
  14. "Fractional Polarisation of Extragalactic Sources in the 500-square-degree SPTpol Survey", arXiv:1907.02156 (Jul 2019)
  15. "CMB-S4 Science Case, Reference Design, and Project Plan", arXiv:1907.04473 (Jul 2019)
  16. "A Detection of CMB-Cluster Lensing using Polarization Data from SPTpol", arXiv:1907.08605 (Jul 2019)
  17. "Galaxy Clusters Selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect in the SPTpol 100-Square-Degree Survey", arXiv:1907.09621 (Jul 2019)
  18. "On-sky performance of the SPT-3G frequency-domain multiplexed readout", arXiv:1907.10947 (Jul 2019)
  19. "Performance of Al-Mn Transition-Edge Sensor Bolometers in SPT-3G", arXiv:1907.11976 (Jul 2019)
  20. "CMB-S4 Decadal Survey APC White Paper", arXiv:1908.01062 (Jul 2019)

Latest Conference Proceedings
  1. "Broadband anti-reflective coatings for cosmic microwave background experiments", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10708, id. 1070843 13 pp. (2018) (Jul 2018)
  2. "Characterization and performance of the second-year SPT-3G focal plane", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10708, id. 107081Z 13 pp. (2018) (Jul 2018)
  3. "Year two instrument status of the SPT-3G cosmic microwave background receiver", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10708, id. 1070803 21 pp. (2018) (Jul 2018)
  4. "Design and characterization of the SPT-3G receiver", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10708, id. 107081H 11 pp. (2018) (Jul 2018)
  5. "X-ray Scaling Relations of SPT Selected Galaxy Clusters Observed with XMM-Newton", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #229, id.404.09 (Jan 2017)
  6. "Integrated performance of a frequency domain multiplexing readout in the SPT-3G receiver", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9914, id. 99141D 11 pp. (2016) (Jul 2016)
  7. "Large arrays of dual-polarized multichroic TES detectors for CMB measurements with the SPT-3G receiver", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9914, id. 991417 11 pp. (2016) (Jul 2016)
  8. "Still Red and Dead? Measuring feedback and star-formation in clusters at z > 1", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #228, id.118.07 (Jun 2016)
  9. "Sunyaev Zel'dovich Cluster Surveys", American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #14, id.102.01 (Aug 2014)
  10. "SPT-3G: a next-generation cosmic microwave background polarization experiment on the South Pole telescope", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9153, id. 91531P 21 pp. (2014) (Jul 2014)

 
Visitors
Past Visitors:
  1. Sebastian Bocquet, LMU Munich (2015)
  2. Fabian Koehlinger, Leiden Observatory (2015)
  3. Alexander van Engelen, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (2015)
  4. Rahlin Alexandra, Princeton University (2014)
  5. Neelima Sehgal, KIPAC, Stanford University (2011)