CMB

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is an observational cornerstone for our understanding of the origin and composition of the Universe. This relic radiation left over from the Big Bang is the oldest light in the Universe. 

The scientific goal of the current generation of CMB experiments is to detect and characterize the polarization of the CMB to probe the era of inflation and physics at the grand unified theory (GUT) scale and measure the mass of the neutrino particle. CMB experiments are unique in their ability to constrain inflation and fundamental physics at energies well beyond what will ever be attainable with terrestrial accelerators. CMB measurements are also critical to answering some of the most interesting questions confronting fundamental physics today. What drives cosmic acceleration? What is dark matter? What are the masses of neutrinos? We use the observable Universe to constrain fundamental physics and try to answer one of the most basic and profound questions in science: How did the Universe begin?

The 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) is the largest telescope on the planet dedicated to observations of the CMB. Located at the Geographic South Pole, SPT began operations in 2007 and is now observing with its third generation camera, SPT-3G. The U. Illinois Observational Cosmology (ObsCos) group works on instrumentation and analysis for SPT. In addition to studying the CMB, our group also works on the astrophysics that can be done concurrently with the cosmological survey. Currently, we are focused on constructing sources catalogs from the SPT-3G data, with the aim of detecting high redshift (z>6) dusty galaxies and exploring the transient time-domain sky in the millemeter wavebands. Our group also is also helping to design the next-generation CMB experiment with the CMB-S4 collaboration. 

You can read more about SPT here or here. You can find out more about CMB-S4 here.

For further reading on SPT:
The 10-meter South Pole Telescope

The SPT-3G camera
SPT SMGs

For further reading on CMB-S4:
CMB-S4 Reference Design