The Simons Observatory: Science and Goals

The millimeter wavelength sky encodes rich information about the origin and evolution of our universe. The Simons Observatory (SO), a ground-based cosmic-microwave background (CMB) experiment, is conducting two surveys with unprecedented sensitivities to the millimeter sky from Cerra Toco at 5200m in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) survey will produce six color maps with arcminute resolution over half the sky to enable constraints on early universe cosmology, probe beyond-the-standard-model physics, and trace the integrated distribution of large-scale structure. The data will enable cross-correlations with galaxy surveys to constrain neutrino mass and the dark energy. Daily arcminute maps of the millimeter-wave sky will provide a host of transient detections for astrophysical analysis of galaxy evolution. The Small Aperture Telescope (SAT) survey is designed to search for evidence of primordial gravitational waves, a hallmark of inflation, through deep maps of the polarized CMB. The multi-frequency maps spanning 20 and 300 GHz will enable component separation and foreground analysis for both surveys. We discuss the instrument, its status, upcoming upgrades, and an overview of the science program that is already underway.