Tamara Davis
(Queensland)
Abstract:
Observations are now complete for the WiggleZ dark energy survey and
we have mapped the positions of 219,682 bright blue galaxies out to a
redshift of about z=1, over a cubic giga-parsec of space. I will
present the full complement of cosmological results coming out of this
data set.
With the addition of WiggleZ data, baryon acoustic oscillations are
now able to confirm the acceleration of the expansion of the universe,
independent of any supernova data, and this has since been further
strengthened by the addition of Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic
Survey (BOSS) data. Arguably the most exciting results are our
measurements of the growth of structure out to z~0.8, and measurements
of the Alcock-Paczynski effect (sphericity of spheres) that allow us
to measure the rate of expansion at different redshifts H(z) without
needing a cosmological model. These allow us to distinguish between
non-standard models of gravity that are indistinguishable using only
measurements of expansion rate. I will also cover our constraints on
the mass of the neutrino and the effective number of neutrinos, which
are amongst the tightest constraints available from any experiment.
Finally, I will show how the large volume we have sampled has allowed
us to detect the scale at which the universe transitions from
clustered to homogeneous, confirming one of the cornerstones of modern
cosmology.
The WiggleZ data have now been made public, and include data, random
catalogues, and lognormal realisations. With it we have also released
our CosmoMC module so our data can easily be included in your own
cosmological analyses.