Reconstructing the Universe
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Overview
This workshop will bring together researchers working at the intersection of theory, simulations, and observations to discuss new methods and challenges in extracting cosmological information from large-scale structure—particularly focusing on field-level inferences and reconstruction techniques for initial conditions and baryon acoustic oscillations. We aim to foster collaboration across survey boundaries and disciplines.
Reconstruction techniques and field-level inference (FLI) have emerged as powerful tools in large-scale structure (LSS) surveys, offering new ways to extract cosmological information beyond traditional summary statistics. Reconstruction for baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurement, which corrects for nonlinear gravitational evolution to sharpen the BAO signal, has significantly improved the precision of distance measurements used to probe cosmic expansion. The latest results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) demonstrated the remarkable success of this approach, offering a more accurate picture of cosmic geometry and expansion, which directly informs our understanding of dark energy and the expansion history of the universe.
Extending this idea, initial condition reconstruction seeks to recover the primordial density fluctuations from present-day galaxy distributions, providing insights into early Universe physics. Field-level inference takes this further by applying Bayesian methodologies to directly infer the full 3D matter density field and constrain cosmological parameters with maximal information retention. These techniques are becoming increasingly important as upcoming galaxy surveys like Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) and the Vera Rubin Observatory's Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), and Roman Space Telescope push toward higher precision, requiring robust methods to mitigate systematics and extract the most cosmological information possible. This workshop will bring together experts working on reconstruction and FLI to explore recent advancements, foster collaboration, and develop strategies to integrate these approaches into next-generation analyses.
A website for the workshop can be found here.
Organizers:
- Tomomi Sunayama (ASIAA)
- Ue-Li Pen (ASIAA)
- Teppei Okumura (ASIAA)
- Houjun Mo (UMass Amherst)
- Hee-Jong Seo (Ohio University)
- Hamsa Padmanabhan (Geneva)
- Stephen Chen (IAS, Princeton)
- Xinyi Chen (OSU)
Sponsors: Max Planck-IAS-NTU Center, Academia Scinica.