Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology
Research and ongoing PhD theses are listed below.
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Galaxy Formation and Evolution
Our team aims at investigating the complex processes leading to the
formation and evolution of galaxies, galaxy systems, and
supermassive black holes in a cosmological framework. To this
purpose, we develop physical models to interpret and understand the
astrophysics of galaxies and black holes across cosmic times,
exploiting their emission over the whole electromagnetic spectrum and in gravitational waves.
We are also strongly focused on the cosmological analysis of large-scale structure data to help
understanding the fundamental nature of dark matter, dark energy, and gravity. Main collaborators in SISSA: Carlo BACCIGALUPI (APC), Alessandro BRESSAN (APC), Annalisa CELOTTI (APC), Luigi DANESE (APC), Tommaso RONCONI (APC Postdoc), Darko DONEVSKI (APC Postdoc), Valeria GRISONI (APC Postdoc), Paolo SALUCCI (APC), Matteo VIEL (APP). Main collaborators outside SISSA: Joaquin GONZALEZ-NUEVO (Univ. Oviedo, Spain), Marcella MASSARDI & Isabella PRANDONI (INAF-IRA, Bologna, Italy), Francesco SHANKAR (Univ. Southampton, UK), Giulia RODIGHIERO (Univ. Padova, Italy), Matthieu BETHERMIN (LAM, Marsiglia, France), Zhen-Yi CAI (Univ. of Hefei, China), Alfonso CAVALIERE & Roberto FUSCO-FEMIANO (INAF-IAPS, Rome, Italy).Ph.D. students: Lumen BOCO, Lara PANTONI, Tommaso RONCONI, Sabyasachi GOSWAMI, Gauri SHARMA, Giulio SCELFO, Marika GIULIETTI, Giulia CAPURRI, Giovanni GANDOLFI, Alex SICILIA Former students (most recent): Tommaso RONCONI (SISSA, Italy), Sabyasachi GOSWAMI (TBD), Anirban ROY (Cornell Univ., USA), Jingjing SHI (Univ. Beijing, China), Federico BIANCHINI (Univ. Melbourne, Australia), Claudia MANCUSO (INAF-IRA, Bologna,Italy), Rossella AVERSA (CNR, Trieste,Italy). Involvement in international projects (most recent): Athena, Euclid, Herschel, Einstein Telescope. Financial support (most recent): H2020-ITN "BiD4BEST:Big Data Application for Black Hole Evolution Studies", PRIN MIUR 2017 "Opening the ALMA window on the cosmic evolution of gas, stars and supermassive black holes", PRIN MIUR 2015 "Cosmology and Fundamental Physics: illuminating the Dark Universe with Euclid", ASI-COSMOS Project "Cosmic Orbital and Suborbital Microwave Observations", "Spanish MINECO I+D 2015 project "High-z sub-mm sources: the optimal sample to study the gravitational lensed Universe", PRIN INAF 2012 "Looking into the Dust Obscured Phase of Galaxy Formation through Cosmic Zoom Lenses in the Herschel-ATLAS Survey", INFN QGSKY and InDARK Initiatives.
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Early Universe and CMB Data Analysis
The Early Universe is nowadays probed with unprecedented precision by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Large Scale Structure (LSS) experiments.
This poses severe challenges to our comprehension of the physical processes occurred in the Early Universe, as well as the nature of the Dark Cosmological Components. The SISSA Astrophysics group,
led by Carlo Baccigalupi, Nicoletta Krachmalnicoff, Davide Poletti,
has coordination roles in data analysis, pipeline preparation, data exploitation and interpretation in operating ( PolarBear, Simons Array)
and planned experiments (Simons Observatory, CMB-S4, LiteBird).
Also, Carlo Baccigalupi coordinates the activities on cross-correlation between CMB and LSS for the forthcoming European Space Agency satellite,
Euclid.
Main research topics and available thesis projects:
Further information on research programs in Early Universe and CMB Data Analysis at SISSA are available here. |
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Stellar Structure and Evolution
Stellar evolution keeps a unique role for deciphering the visible properties of the universe,
from the solar neighborhoods to the primeval galaxies. A new Renaissance for the stellar structure
theory is approaching, due to the challenging results of asteroseismology, that are disclosing the
invisible star's secrets, and to the beginning of the multi-messenger astronomy with the detection
of gravitational waves from merging compact stellar remnants and their follow-ups.
Main collaborators in SISSA: Guglielmo Costa (PhD student), Sabyasachi Goswami (PhD student), Milena Valentini (PhD student), Mirouh Giovanni (APC, postdoc), Luigi Danese (APC), Antonio Lanza (APC), Andrea Lapi (APC), Francesca Perrotta (APC), Paolo Salucci (APC). Main collaborators outside SISSA: Luciana Bianchi (Johns Hopkins University, US); Stefano Borgani (INAF, OATS, Trieste); Stephane Charlot (IAP,FR); Leo Girardi (INAF, OAPD, Padova); Michela Mapelli (INAF, OAPD, Padova); Paola Marigo (Univ. Padova); Andrea Miglio(Univ. Birmingham UK); Giuseppe Murante (INAF, OATS,Trieste); Phil Rosenfield (Cambridge, Massachusetts, US); Laura Silva (INAF, OATS, Trieste); Mario Spera(INAF, OAPD, Padova); Antonella Vallenari (INAF, OAPD, Padova); Olga Vega (INAOE, Mex).Recent former students: Yang Chen (Univ. Padova), Xiaoting Fu (Univ. Bologna), Ambra Nanni (Univ. Padova), Ikechukwu Anthony Obi (Univ. Enugu, Nigeria) , Alessandra Slemer (Univ. Padova), Jing Tang (NAO, Beijing), Alessandro Trani (Univ. Tokyo). Involvement in international projects: GAIA, Kepler, Euclid, JWST, PLATO, SKA.Financial support: PRIN INAF, 2015 Euclid grant, ERC "STARKEY" (P.I. Paola Marigo, Univ. Padova). Main research topics and available thesis projects:
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High Energy Astrophysics
The formation and the evolution of extremely compact stellar objects and Black Holes in the Universe are signaled by exceptional phenomena such as production of particles accelerated to energies much higher than those reachable by the most powerful accelerators on Earth. Often these particles are collimated in extremely energetic jets. Extraordinary X-ray and gamma-ray luminosity is also associated with these objects. High Energy Astrophysics is devoted to study the extremely energetic phenomena occurring in the Universe, in order to understand these extraordinary cosmic settings and to test the fundamental physics at its frontiers.
Main research topics and available thesis projects:
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Dark Matter
Dark matter is a main protagonist in Cosmology. Its presence, proven by observations,
implies the existence of physics yet undiscovered, moreover such a component
is likely to rule the formation and the evolution of any Cosmological Structure.
In galaxies, groups and clusters of glaxies, the observed ordinary baryonic matter,
gas and stars, had, over the whole history of the Universe, a complex interplay with this
invisible component. The detailed lines of research are:
Main research topics and available thesis projects:
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Gravitation and Gravitational Waves
Almost 100 years after Einstein introduced General Relativity, the theory still remains puzzling. Systems were gravity is strong, such as compact stars and black holes, and the phenomena taking place in their vicinity can provide new insight in both astrophysics and fundamental physics. The recent detection of Gravitational Waves from Black-Hole and Neutron Star
systems opens unprecedented windows on the regime of strong gravity, and enforces the need to study emitters and
progenitors in astrophysical systems. Moreover, the thorny issues of quantum gravity and potentially even classical deviations from General Relativity are most pertinent than ever.
Main research topics and available thesis projects:
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Galaxy Clusters...
Galaxy clusters are the most recent and largest collapsed objects in the
universe. Their formation and evolution rate is a strong function of the
background cosmology, thus making galaxy clusters useful probes
to constrain cosmological models.
The formation of a galaxy cluster is a complex non-linear
phenomenon which involves many physical aspects such as gravity which drives
the collapse, the hydrodynamic of the baryons which are shock heated to virial
temperatures by the processes of accretion and merging of substructures.
Additionally, the gas can cool radiatively and subsequently form stars which
in turn will return energy and metals to the gas through supernovae explosions.
At virial equilibrium most of the baryons in the cluster will reside in the
form of a hot X-ray emitting gas, which is commonly referred to
as the intracluster medium (ICM).
To follow in a self-consistent manner the complex hydrodynamical
flows that take place during the evolution of the ICM
it is then necessary the use of N-body/hydrodynamic codes. To this end,
a Lagrangian state-of-the art parallel SPH code has been developed over
the years and then applied to the study of a number of problems, such
as the impact of turbulence in the ICM.
Turbulent motions are expected to affect ICM properties in a
variety of ways. For instance, the accuracy of cosmological constraints
extracted from galaxy clusters relies on accurate measurements
of their gravitating mass. X-ray estimates of cluster masses
are based on the assumption of spherical symmetry and hydrostatic equilibrium.
However, turbulent motions will provide additional non-thermal
pressure support which will bias the hydrostatic equilibrium assumption.
Additionally, non-thermal pressure support also has a significant effect
on the shape and amplitude of the thermal SZ power spectrum.
Finally, turbulence in the ICM has been also proposed as a possible
heating source to solve the so-called cooling flow problem.
Main research topics and available thesis projects:
...and Large Scale Structure
Present Large Scale Structure simulations in cosmology
are compared with data from existing and planned (Euclid)
surveys, allowing to gain unprecedented insight into the role of hydrodynamics,
the main properties and dynamics of the Dark Matter and Dark Energy,
as well as to constrain Gravity Modifications.
The LSS group at SISSA is active in the following directions:
Main research topics and available thesis projects:
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Astrochemistry and Astrobiology
Astrobiology is a multidisciplinary science facing one of the most fundamental topics nowadays, the origin of life.
It lies at the intersection of astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, and biology.
Initially organic compounds form in the interstellar medium, and their interaction with radiation and surfaces - from grains of sand to growing planetesimals - facilitates the steady growth of complex molecules. In this way, they form chemical systems (prebiotic
molecules) that can combine to create genetic material and metabolism. We focus on the search of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium and, particularly, on the search of chiral molecules (molecules that can exist in two forms which are mirror images of each other, named enantiomers),
which have a particular importance for life. Indeed, any biological system on Earth relies on key chiral molecules (sugars, aminoacids, nucleic acids) which, remarkably, exist almost exclusively as single enantiomers: homochirality seems to be a striking signature of life.
The search for chiral molecules and the possible measurements of their enantiomeric excess in astronomical compounds in the ISM will proceed through the spectroscopical analysis of IR and sub-mm data from existing radiotelecopes and interferometers, such as ALMA.
Main collaborators: : Laura Silva & Giovanni Vladilo (INAF/OATS, Trieste, Italy), Marcella Massardi (INAF/IRA, Bologna, Italy), Massimo Maris (Univ. Bologna, Italy), Alessandra Magistrato (INFN Trieste, Italy) Main research topics and available thesis projects:
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