Colloquium by Matthew Ho and Joshua Forer, Columbia
Accelerating Cosmological Discovery with Trustworthy Machine Learning
Matthew Ho
Modern cosmological surveys are mapping the universe at an unprecedented scale and resolution, offering a stringent testbed to probe the physics of dark matter, dark energy, and structure formation. Machine Learning (ML) is transforming how we process these massive datasets, capturing rich, complex information that traditional methods discard. In this talk, I will overview how ML is bridging new connections between fundamental theory, observational data, and numerical simulations, maximizing the potential for scientific discovery without sacrificing statistical rigor. As a primary use case, I will show how ML has dramatically improved our ability to constrain cosmological theory from spectroscopic galaxy clustering. I will present generative emulators that scale high-fidelity simulations to cosmological volumes, enabling the first-ever ML analysis of the full SDSS CMASS dataset. Finally, I will demonstrate how ML interpretability tools can be used to discover novel cosmological probes, driving the future of observational data analysis.
Electron-driven molecular processes in astrochemistry
Joshua Forer
Essentially all of the light that we use to observe distant astrophysical objects comes from microscopic phenomena, which often involves molecules and free electrons. Interpreting that light therefore requires not only an understanding of spectroscopy, but also of the molecular collisions and reactions that govern the populations of the species that produce it. Knowledge of these processes helps connect observed spectra to the physicochemical conditions of various astrophysical environments, such as interstellar clouds and planetary nebulae. In this talk I will present several electron-driven processes that are important in astrochemistry, how we study them, and some of what they can tell us about the universe around us and how knowledge of the underlying chemistry can be used to better understand the composition and dynamics of the universe.
Cookies will be available, starting at 3:45.
Host: Jane Huang