• theLateUniverseLab

    Welcome to Silvestri's Late Universe Lab at the Instituut Lorentz for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University . Our research is in the field of Theoretical Cosmology, with focus on the late time Universe. We work to shed light on gravity, the nature of Dark Energy and, more broadly, fundamental physics with large cosmological surveys and gravitational waves surveys. We cover theoretical, numerical and data analysis aspects.

                                                              

Our Research.


We are cosmologists, in other words we use physics to study the Universe, how it started and evolved into the structure that we observe around us. With the evolution of the universe spanning a vast range of energies and scales, cosmological observables can shed light on virtually any particle physics model as well as on any theory of gravity. Our passion and interests are in using the array of cosmological data available to us to test fundamental physics. Through the past years we have been involved both in theoretical and observational aspects of this endeavor, with a particular focus on tests of gravity on cosmological scales. We are a very active part of the Euclid mission and have recently started a Gravitational Waves Cosmology program jointly with the gravitational waves group at GRAPPA (UvA). See below for a sample of recent works.

Meet the Team.


Alessandra Silvestri

Associate Professor (PI)
On Google Scholar

Suvodip Mukherjee

D-ITP postdoc
suvomu@gmail.com

Fabrizio Renzi

Postdoc
renzi@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

Omar Contigiani

de Sitter PhD fellow [exp. PhD Oct. 2021]
contigiani@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Alice Garoffolo

PhD student [exp. PhD Oct. 2023]
garoffolo@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

Anna Balaudo

de Sitter PhD fellow [exp. PhD Oct. 2024]

Saeid Mahmoudzadeh

Master student

Rodolfo Dernini

Master student

PAST MEMBERS


Matteo Martinelli
D-ITP Fellow. Now Junior Leader at IFT (Madrid).

Yashar Akrami
Postdoc. Now Senior Fellow at ENS (Paris).

Simone Peirone
PhD. Now Junior analyst at RaboBank.

G.Papadomanolakis
PhD student.

V.Vardanyan
de Sitter PhD student. Now postdc at Kavli IPMU (Tokyo)

Marco Raveri
PhD student. Now postdoct at KICP (Chicago U.).

Noemi Frusciante
PhD student. Now postdoct at Lisbon U.

Sofia Canevarolo
Master thesis. Starting Phd at Utrecht U. (Fall 2021).

Andrea Manrique Yus
Master thesis. Now PhD at Leiden Observatory.

Banafshe Shiralilou
Master thesis. Now PhD at Amsterdam, UvA.

Sara Maleubre Molinero
Master thesis. Now PhD at LUTH Paris

Carlos Mateos Hidalgo
Master thesis.

Juan Espejo
Master thesis. Now PhD at Melbourne U. (Australia).

Fre' Vink
Master thesis. Now employed by Dutch Government (Den Haag, Netherlands).

Francesca Gerardi
Master thesis.

Matteo Rizzato
Master thesis. Now PhD at IAP (Paris).

Alex Zucca
Master thesis. Now PhD at SFU (Vancouver, Canada).

Michailis Dagtzis
Master research project.

Darren Buttigieg
Master thesis.

EFTCAMB.


Get In Touch!


Address

Oort Building
Niels Bohrweg 2
2333CA Leiden
The Netherlands

Contacts:

Phone: (0031) 71-5275540
Email: silvestri@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

Publications.


Here you can find the list of publications from the PI.

A look at Hubble speed from first principles.
arXiv:2011.10559

Detecting Dark Energy Fluctuations with Gravitational Waves.
arXiv:2007.13722

Accurate and precision Cosmology with redshift unknown gravitational wave sources.
arXiv:2007.02943

Strong Lensing Time Delay Constraints on Dark Energy: a Forecast.
JCAP 04 (2020) 057

Generalized Brans-Dicke theories in light of evolving dark energy.
Phys.Rev.D 101 (2020) 4, 043518

Reconstruction of the Dark Energy equation of state from latest data: the impact of theoretical priors.
JCAP 1907 (2019) 042

MGCAMB with massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy.
JCAP 1905 (2019) 001

Splashback radius in symmetron gravity.
Phys.Rev. D99 (2019) no.6, 064030

The role of the tachyonic instability in Horndeski gravity.
JCAP 1902 (2019) 029

Phenomenology of Large Scale Structure in scalar-tensor theories: joint prior covariance of wDE, Σ and μ in Horndeski.
Phys.Rev. D99 (2019) no.2, 023512

Large-scale structure phenomenology of viable Horndeski theories.
Phys.Rev. D97 (2018) no.4, 043519.

Do current cosmological observations rule out all Covariant Galileons?.
Phys.Rev. D97 (2018) no.6, 063518.

Comparison of Einstein-Boltzmann solvers for testing general relativity.
Phys.Rev. D97 (2018) no.2, 023520.

Priors on the effective Dark Energy equation of state in scalar-tensor theories.
Phys.Rev. D96 (2017) no.8, 083509.

On nonlocally interacting metrics, and a simple proposal for cosmic acceleration.
JCAP 1803 (2018) no.03, 048.

Impact of theoretical priors in cosmological analyses: the case of single field quintessence.
Phys.Rev. D96 (2017) no.6, 063524.

What can cosmology tell us about gravity? Constraining Horndeski gravity with $\Sigma$ and $\mu$.
Phys.Rev. D94 (2016) no.10, 104014.

Testing Hu–Sawicki f(R) gravity with the effective field theory approach.
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 459 (2016) no.4, 3880-3889.

An Extended action for the effective field theory of dark energy: a stability analysis and a complete guide to the mapping at the basis of EFTCAMB.
JCAP 1607 (2016) no.07, 018.

Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect in modified gravity.
Phys.Rev. D93 (2016) no.6, 064026.

Testing deviations from ΛCDM with growth rate measurements from six large-scale structure surveys at $z = $0.06–1.
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 456 (2016) no.4, 3743-3756.

Hořava Gravity in the Effective Field Theory formalism: From cosmology to observational constraints.
Phys.Dark Univ. 13 (2016) 7-24.

Exploring massive neutrinos in dark cosmologies with $\scriptsize{EFTCAMB}$/ EFTCosmoMC.
Phys.Rev. D91 (2015) no.6, 063524.

Measuring the speed of cosmological gravitational waves.
Phys.Rev. D91 (2015) no.6, 061501.

EFTCAMB/EFTCosmoMC: Numerical Notes v3.0.
[arXiv:1405.3590 [astro-ph.IM]].

Effective Field Theory of Cosmic Acceleration: constraining dark energy with CMB data.
Phys.Rev. D90 (2014) no.4, 043513.

Effective Field Theory of Cosmic Acceleration: an implementation in CAMB.
Phys.Rev. D89 (2014) no.10, 103530.

Observable physical modes of modified gravity.
Phys.Rev. D89 (2014) no.8, 083505.

Effective Field Theory of Dark Energy: a Dynamical Analysis.
JCAP 1402 (2014) 026.

New Constraints On The Dark Energy Equation of State.
Phys.Rev. D88 (2013) 043515.

Practical approach to cosmological perturbations in modified gravity.
Phys.Rev. D87 (2013) no.10, 104015.

Practical solutions for perturbed f(R) gravity.
Phys.Rev. D86 (2012) 123503.

Parametrised modified gravity and the CMB Bispectrum.
Phys.Rev. D86 (2012) 063517.

Cosmological tests of General Relativity: a principal component analysis.
Phys.Rev. D85 (2012) 043508.

Scalar radiation from Chameleon-shielded regions.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 106 (2011) 251101.

Modifying gravity: Cosmic acceleration and the large scale structure of the universe.
By Alessandra Silvestri.

Probing modifications of General Relativity using current cosmological observations.
Phys.Rev. D81 (2010) 103510.

How to optimally parametrize deviations from General Relativity in the evolution of cosmological perturbations?.
Phys.Rev. D81 (2010) 104023.

New constraints on parametrised modified gravity from correlations of the CMB with large scale structure.
JCAP 1004 (2010) 030.

Reconstructing the Peculiar Velocity of the Local Group with Modified Gravity and 2MASS.
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 401 (2010) 1219-1230.

Cosmological Tests of General Relativity with Future Tomographic Surveys.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 103 (2009) 241301.

Approaches to Understanding Cosmic Acceleration.
Rept.Prog.Phys. 72 (2009) 096901.

Non-Gaussian Signatures from the Post-inflationary Early Universe.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 103 (2009) 251301.

Searching for modified growth patterns with tomographic surveys.
Phys.Rev. D79 (2009) 083513.

The pattern of growth in viable f(R) cosmologies.
Phys.Rev. D77 (2008) 023503, Erratum: Phys.Rev. D81 (2010) 049901.

Dynamics of Linear Perturbations in f(R) Gravity.
Phys.Rev. D75 (2007) 064020.

Modified-Source Gravity and Cosmological Structure Formation.
New J.Phys. 8 (2006) 323.

Chiral anomalies via classical and quantum functional methods.
Int.J.Mod.Phys. A20 (2005) 5009-5036.