School of Physics CRA Seminar: Prof. Michael McDonald, MIT

In this talk, I will summarize recent results from the South Pole Telescope 2500 deg^2 survey. This mass-limited survey has discovered hundreds of new galaxy clusters at 0 < z < 1.7, allowing an unprecedented view of galaxy cluster evolution. Using follow-up observations from Spitzer, Hubble, Chandra, XMM-Newton, Magellan, VLT, ALMA, ATCA, and Gemini, we are able to study the evolution of the stars, gas, and dark matter in these massive systems. Based on these data, we constrain the evolution of cluster galaxies, the central AGN, the cooling ICM, the heavy metal abundance of the ICM, the dynamical state of the cluster, and various other cluster properties. Looking forward, I will present several new and ongoing surveys which will dramatically change the landscape of galaxy cluster research in coming years.