Astrophysics & Cosmology

The UW Physics Department has a broad interest in astrophysics with an emphasis on making the hard measurements that push our understanding of the cosmos. Key efforts inclue the world's premier search for axions (one of two proposed dark matter particles) with ADMX, detecting the birth of the first stars and galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization with the MWA, the world's most precise measurements of gravity (primary constraints on extra dimensions come from UW measurements), measuring the mass and nature of neutrinos with KATRIN, and the study of neutron stars and supernovae. UW is also a founding member of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and plays a leading data analysis role to study Dark Energy. In many of these areas we have strong ties with the UW Astronomy department (we're in the same building), and many faculty in the Physics and Astronomy departments advise students from the other department.​