Project description
Shining a light on dark matter and dark energy
The Lambda cold dark matter model is the standard model of contemporary cosmology, a description of the inflationary Big Bang theory. Its three main components are: Lambda, the cosmological constant associated with dark energy (about 70 % of our universe); dark matter (about 25 %); and ordinary matter (about 5 %). However, the necessary information for a full description is missing because of the difficulty in analysing and constraining both dark sectors at the same time. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PRIMROSE project is exploiting cross-correlations between photometric and spectroscopic data, with improved cosmological simulations, to inform future galaxy surveys on optimal dark sectors studies.
Objective
The LCDM model has been established as the cosmological reference model thanks to its ability to predict the main cosmological observations. However, it requires the addition of cold dark matter and dark energy as a cosmological constant, whose nature is not yet understood. There exist a large number of theoretical models beyond LCDM, but the majority focus either on the dark matter component or on dark energy, showing there is a clear lack of models analyzing both dark sectors at the same time. And it has been shown that the constraints on either sector are strongly degraded if the assumptions on the other sector are relaxed. The main objective of this action is to make use of the cross-correlations between the different cosmological probes of future galaxy surveys to extract this additional information and constrain theoretical models extending both dark matter and dark energy together. The role of cross-correlations in current photometric galaxy surveys is very relevant. However, the methodology to properly combine photometric and spectroscopic data has not been fully developed yet. This action will combine the expertise of the experienced researcher on modeling and simulating photometric probes with the expertise of the host institution on spectroscopic data and models beyond LCDM. Using the combined expertise, this action plans to compute the theoretical predictions for the cross-correlations between photometric and spectroscopic data, as well as generating cosmological simulations to cross-check these predictions. By providing a coherent framework, based on simulations and theoretical input, to combine photometric and spectroscopic probes of future surveys taking into account all their cross-correlations, this action aims at using this additional information to constrain not only the standard cosmological model, but also both dark sectors of the Universe at the same time.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyphysical cosmologybig bang
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyastrophysicsdark matter
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyphysical cosmologygalaxy evolution
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware applicationssimulation software
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsspectroscopy
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
1211 Geneve
Switzerland