Summer Program

Lyman Alpha Emitters and Lyman Break Galaxies as Cosmological Tracer Populations

June 1–29, 2025

Organizers:

Arjun Dey, NOIRLab
*Kyoung-Soo, Lee Purdue University
Naveen Reddy, University of California Riverside
Martin White, University of California Berkeley

*represents the organizer in charge of promoting diversity

The large-scale distribution of matter in the distant (redshift > 2) universe provides the best cosmological constraints on primordial physics such as inflation, early epochs of dark energy and exotic particle species. However, the most easily observable galaxy tracer populations are young star-forming galaxies whose formation and evolution are strongly affected by complex astrophysical processes, which can result in observational selection and measurement biases. Recent observations from ground and space observatories have begun to reveal the detailed properties and large scale clustering of these populations. As the physics community embarks on large cosmological surveys of the distant universe, it is necessary to critically examine the challenges of using these young star-forming populations as cosmological tracers and to determine how best to mitigate or model these to extract the best cosmological constraints. This workshop aims to bring together a diverse group of researchers working on observations, theory and simulations of galaxies and cosmology to investigate these issues.

Summer Workshops

The summer program, running for 16 weeks from late-May to mid-September, emphasizes exciting open problems at the cutting edge. Two or three concurrent workshops, each with a specific focus selected for timeliness and the potential for breakthroughs and of two to five weeks in length, establish the main themes of each week, with twelve or thirteen different workshops each summer, balanced across fields including particle physics, string theory, astrophysics and hard and soft condensed matter physics, as well as emerging areas including biological physics, ultra-cold atom physics, quantum information, and physical mathematics. Additional researchers participate in small working groups or as individual researchers. This framework is designed to maximize informal interactions and free discussion within each area and to promote cross-fertilization between different areas via the common language of theoretical physics. Participation in the summer program of the Aspen Center for Physics is by application and subsequent invitation only. View past workshops.