Graca Rocha

Lensing reconstruction from Planck sky maps: inhomogeneous noise

We discuss the effects of inhomogeneous sky coverage on cosmic microwave background lens reconstruction, focusing on application to the recently launched Planck satellite. We discuss the mean field which is induced by noise inhomogeneities, as well as three approaches to lens reconstruction in this context: an optimal maximum-likelihood approach which is computationally expensive to evaluate and two suboptimal approaches which are less intensive. The first of these is only suboptimal at the 5 per cent level for Planck, and the second prevents biasing due to uncertainties in the noise model.

A Characteristic Transmission Spectrum dominated by H

Currently, 19 transiting exoplanets have published transmission spectra obtained with the Hubble/WFC3 G141 near-IR grism. Using this sample, we have undertaken a uniform analysis incorporating measurement-error debiasing of the spectral modulation due to H

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O applies to the majority of HST/WFC3 exoplanet observations

O, measured in terms of the estimated atmospheric scale height,

Constraining variations in the fine structure constant in the presence of early dark energy

{H_s}

What can be learned from the lensed cosmic microwave background B-mode polarization power spectrum?

. For those planets with a reported H

ANALYSIS OF WMAP 7 YEAR TEMPERATURE DATA: ASTROPHYSICS OF THE GALACTIC HAZE

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CMB polarimetry with BICEP: instrument characterization, calibration, and performance

O detection (10 out of 19), the spectral modulation due to H

Absolute polarization angle calibration using polarized diffuse Galactic emission observed by BICEP

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COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND LIKELIHOOD APPROXIMATION FOR BANDED PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

O ranges from 0.9 to 2.9~