Thesis

Fundamental cosmology from precision spectroscopy: The ESPRESSO road to ANDES

• Call:

  PT-CERN Call 2022/1

• Academic Year:

  2022

• Domain:

  Astroparticle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Carlos Martins

• Co-Supervisor:

• Institution:

  Universidade do Porto

• Host Institution:

  Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

• Abstract:

  The observational evidence for the acceleration of the universe shows that canonical theories of gravitation, cosmology and particle physics are incomplete. The LambdaCDM model is a simple convenient approximation to a more fundamental theory, whose details or underlying principles are still unknown. Astrophysical facilities must search for, identify and characterise this new physics. My thesis will address this challenge, and specifically two questions: 1) Are the laws of physics universal? 2) What makes the universe accelerate? This relies on state-of-the-art high-resolution spectroscopy data from the ESPRESSO Guaranteed Time Observations, leading to the most accurate and precise such astrophysical tests, directly testing the Einstein Equivalence Principle and constraining dynamical dark energy. In parallel, I will participate in Phases B and C of construction of the ANDES spectrograph, specifically by optimizing its cosmology and fundamental physics science cases, including the exciting prospect of the detection of the Sandage test signal.