Name: Natalian Kuznetsova
Institution: U. of California, Berkeley

University of Washington

Astrolunch

Abstract:
Since its surprise discovery in 1998, dark energy continues to present a challenge to astroparticle physics. This mysterious energy component comprising two-thirds of the Universe is responsible for the acceleration of the Universe's expansion and will ultimately determine the fate of the Universe, yet its nature remains elusive. Defining the optimal mission for understanding the nature of dark energy may well be one of the most important physics tasks of the next two decades. The Supernova / Acceleration Probe (SNAP) is a proposed space-based experiment designed to perform precision measurements of the dark energy equation of state through observations of about 2,000 type Ia supernovae and through a wide-area weak gravitational lensing survey. In my talk, I will review the design and current status of the SNAP experiment. I will concentrate on SNAP's sophisticated mission simulation, SNAPsim, that already allows us to perform numerous trade-off and science studies, and in the future will be the basis for the SNAP data analysis pipeline.