Observing the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Sky with Bolocam Sunil Golwala, Assistant Professor of Physics, Caltech

Blind surveys for galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect are becoming one of the new frontiers in cosmology, promising to tell us about both about global cosmological parameters as well as cluster formation and astrophysics.  We have recently conducted such a survey at 150 GHz using Bolocam, a 144-element mm-wave bolometer camera, on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory.  We review the use of the SZ effect for cosmology and cluster astrophysics, describe the instrument, and report on the state of analysis of this data set, concentrating on generic aspects that will be common to the large number of upcoming SZ survey instruments. We also present highlights of data sets taken at 1.1 mm to search for dust-obscured ultraluminous galaxies and cold protostellar condensations in our own galaxy.