WFIRST: The Essential Cosmology Space Observatory for the Coming Decade
Abstract
Two decades after its discovery, cosmic acceleration remains the most profound mystery in cosmology and arguably in all of physics. Either the Universe is dominated by a form of dark energy with exotic physical properties not predicted by standard model physics, or General Relativity is not an adequate description of gravity over cosmic distances. WFIRST emerged as a top priority of Astro2010 in part because of its ability to address the mystery of cosmic acceleration through both high precision measurements of the cosmic expansion history and the growth of cosmic structures with multiple and redundant probes. We illustrate in this white paper how mission design changes since Astro2010 have made WFIRST an even more powerful dark energy facility and have improved the ability of WFIRST to respond to changes in the experimental landscape. WFIRST is the space-based probe of DE the community needs in the mid-2020s.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1904.01174,
title = {WFIRST: The Essential Cosmology Space Observatory for the Coming Decade},
author = {O. Doré and C. Hirata and Y. Wang and D. Weinberg and T. Eifler and R. J. Foley and C. He Heinrich and E. Krause and S. Perlmutter and A. Pisani and D. Scolnic and D. N. Spergel and N. Suntzeff and G. Aldering and C. Baltay and P. Capak and A. Choi and S. Deustua and C. Dvorkin and S. M. Fall and X. Fang and A. Fruchter and L. Galbany and S. Ho and R. Hounsell and A. Izard and B. Jain and A. M. Koekemoer and J. Kruk and A. Leauthaud and S. Malhotra and R. Mandelbaum and E. Massara and D. Masters and H. Miyatake and A. Plazas and J. Rhoads and J. Rhodes and B. Rose and D. Rubin and M. Sako and L. Samushia and M. Shirasaki and M. Simet and M. Takada and M. A. Troxel and H. Wu and N. Yoshida and Z. Zhai},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.01174},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
7 pages, 2 figures, Astro2020 Science White Paper