Thursday, October 29

AT&T Conference Center, Classroom 105 [map]

9:10-9:20

Welcome & Texas Cosmology Center

Eiichiro Komatsu ~ UT Austin

pdf

9:20-9:30

Welcome

Mary Ann Rankin ~ Dean of the College of Natural Sciences

DARK ENERGY

9:30-9:50

Supernovae and the Accelerating Universe

Nick Suntzeff ~ Texas A&M

pdf ~ abstract

9:50-10:10

Cosmology with the SDSS II Supernova Survey

Craig Wheeler ~ UT Austin

pdf ~ abstract

10:10-10:30

Type Ia Supernovae

Kevin Krisciunas ~ Texas A&M

pdf

10:30-11:00

Break

11:00-11:20

Hobby-Eberly Dark Energy Experiment

Karl Gebhardt or Gary Hill ~ UT Austin

pdf

11:20-11:40

The Dark Energy Survey

Darren DePoy ~ Texas A&M

11:40-12:00

Constraining dark energy with an improved measurement of the Hubble constant

Lucas Macri ~ Texas A&M

pdf [13MB] ~ abstract

A precise measurement of the Hubble constant helps to constrain the equation of state of dark energy. I will present a determination of H0 with a total uncertainty (random+systematic) below 5%. This measurement is based on an improved calibration of the luminosity of type Ia SNe using near-infrared Cepheid Period-Luminosity relations. I will review the steps we are taking to further reduce this uncertainty to 3% in the near future.

12:00-1:30

Lunch
Tejas Dining Room

1:30-2:00

SPECIAL TALK
Carbon Monoxide Line Emission as a CMB Foreground: Tomography of the Star Forming Universe

Rashid Sunyaev ~ MPI

pdf

2:00-3:00

Poster Session

3:00-3:20

The growth rate index of large scale structure as a probe of cosmic acceleration

Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki ~ UT Dallas

pdf ~ abstract

3:20-3:40

A transparent instance of how Lambda contributes to the bending of light

Wolfgang Rindler ~ UT Dallas

pdf ~ abstract

STRUCTURE FORMATION

3:40-4:00

Why does environment matter?

Kim-Vy Tran ~ Texas A&M

pdf ~ abstract

4:00-4:30

Break

4:30-4:50

Searching for the First Galaxies

Steve Finkelstein ~ Texas A&M

pdf ~ abstract

4:50-5:10

Cosmic Reionization

Paul Shapiro ~ UT Austin

pdf [7MB] ~ abstract

5:10-5:30

Simulating cosmological reionization with Enzo

Daniel Reynolds ~ SMU

pdf ~ abstract

5:30-7:00

Reception
M3 Pre-function

7:00-9:00

Dinner
Salon DE

Friday, October 30

AT&T Conference Center, Amphitheatre 204 [map]

DARK ENERGY, INFLATION, AND STRINGS

9:30-9:50

F-ast Proton Decay

Dimitri Nanopoulos ~ Texas A&M

pdf

9:50-10:10

The Horava-Lifshitz and its Applications to Cosmology and Astrophysics

Anzhong Wang ~ Baylor

pdf ~ abstract

10:10-10:30

Investigations of the String Landscape

Gerald Cleaver ~ Baylor

abstract

10:30-11:00

Break

11:00-11:20

Asymptotically Safe Inflation

Steven Weinberg ~ UT Austin

pdf

11:20-11:40

String Theory and Inflation

Melanie Becker ~ Texas A&M

pdf ~ abstract

DARK MATTER

11:40-12:00

Dark Matter at the LHC

Bhaskar Dutta ~ Texas A&M

pdf

12:00-1:30

Lunch
Tejas Dining Room

1:30-2:00

SPECIAL TALK
Bose-Einstein Condensation of Dark Matter Axions

Pierre Sikivie ~ Univ. of Florida

pdf ~ abstract

2:00-2:20

The Texas Dark Matter Project: Constraints on Dark Matter Axion Models from White Dwarf Evolution

Don Winget ~ UT Austin

pdf

2:20

Adjourn