Published April 2, 2019 | Version Submitted
White Paper Open

WFIRST: The Essential Cosmology Space Observatory for the Coming Decade

Abstract

Two decades after its discovery, cosmic acceleration remains the most profound mystery in cosmology and arguably in all of physics. Either the Universe is dominated by a form of dark energy with exotic physical properties not predicted by standard model physics, or General Relativity is not an adequate description of gravity over cosmic distances. WFIRST emerged as a top priority of Astro2010 in part because of its ability to address the mystery of cosmic acceleration through both high precision measurements of the cosmic expansion history and the growth of cosmic structures with multiple and redundant probes. We illustrate in this white paper how mission design changes since Astro2010 have made WFIRST an even more powerful dark energy facility and have improved the ability of WFIRST to respond to changes in the experimental landscape. WFIRST is the space-based probe of DE the community needs in the mid-2020s.

Additional Information

Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. © 2019.

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Identifiers

Eprint ID
97854
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190813-085750799

Related works

Funding

NASA/JPL/Caltech

Dates

Created
2019-08-13
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2023-06-02
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Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
Series Name
Astro2020 Science White Paper