Cosmology in the Era of Large Surveys

Ryan Scranton (Pittsburgh)

The past decade has seen an unprecedented improvement in our
understanding of the basic picture of the universe. We have gone from
factors of 2 uncertainties in the age and matter density of the
universe to better than 10% precision thanks to a vast increase in the
available survey information. Along the way, the depth and breadth of
these surveys have made previously impossible measurements a reality.
I will discuss two such cases: detection of cosmic magnification and
the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. Another unexpected benefit of
these surveys has been the discovery of dark energy. While the
current generation has been sufficient to demonstrate its existence,
we will have to wait until the next round of surveys to fully explore
we will have to wait until the next round of surveys to fully explore
the details of dark energy behavior throughout the history of the
universe. I will finish with a discussion of some of the tools we
will need to develop over the course of the next several years to
fully exploit the power of future surveys like the LSST, DES and
Pan-Starrs.