• # 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. 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 some of us participate into the Planck mission. Also, we are in the CANTATA cost-action network. See below for a sample of recent works.

# Meet the Team.

### Alessandra Silvestri

Associate Professor (PI)

### Matteo Martinelli

D-ITP Fellow martinelli@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

PhD student [exp. PhD Sept. 2019] papadomanolakis@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

### Valeri Vardanyan

de Sitter fellow [exp. PhD Sept. 2019] vardanyan@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

### Simone Peirone

PhD student [exp. PhD Sept. 2020] peirone@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

Master student

Master student

Master student

### Roohi Dalal

Fulbright scholar

#### PAST MEMBERS

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

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

Noemi Frusciante
PhD student. Now postdoct at Lisbon U.

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.

# Get In Touch!

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.

The role of the tachyonic instability in Horndeski gravity.
arXiv:1810.03461

Phenomenology of Large Scale Structure in scalar-tensor theories: joint prior covariance of wDE, Σ and μ in Horndeski.
arXiv:1809.01121

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.

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.