Chasing the Dark Universe with Euclid and Python: Unveiling the Secrets of the Cosmos

Thursday 09:05 in Zeiss Plenary (Spectrum)

The Euclid mission, a European Space Agency-led mission launched in July 2023, is set to transform our understanding of the Universe by exploring its most elusive constituents: dark energy and dark matter. Together, they account for 95% of the cosmos, dictating its structure, evolution, and eventual fate. Euclid is currently surveying one-third of the sky to construct the most extensive 3D map of the Universe ever created. By using deep imaging and spectroscopic data, it traces the distribution of galaxies and the subtle distortions caused by gravitational lensing with unparalleled precision.

By connecting theory with observations, Euclid aims to uncover the properties of dark energy driving cosmic acceleration and the distribution of dark matter shaping large-scale cosmic structures. At the heart of this endeavor lies the challenge of cosmological statistical inference: extracting robust conclusions about the nature of dark energy and dark matter from vast, complex datasets. This talk will explore how cutting-edge statistical techniques and powerful computational tools, including Python-based analysis pipelines, are being used to compare theoretical models against Euclid's observations. We will discuss the role of Bayesian inference, machine learning, and advanced simulations in constraining cosmological parameters and testing extensions to the standard model of cosmology.

Guadalupe Canas Herrera

Guadalupe is a Theoretical Cosmologist working in understanding how the Universe began, how it evolved and what its ultimate fate could be. In particular, she is interested in studying alternative cosmological models with state-of-the-art astrophysical data using advanced statistical techniques and data science algorithms. Furthermore, she is interested in forecasting the performance of new experiments or new observables, for instance, Gravitational Waves.

She holds a Bachelor's in Physics from the University of Cantabria, and Master's and PhD degrees in Cosmology from Leiden University. Currently, she is a Research Fellow in Space Science at the European Space Agency. Moreover, she is an active member of the Euclid Consortium: the scientific group behind the data explotaition of the ESA Euclid mission. In particular, she is the maintainer of the code "Cosmology Likelihood for Observables in Euclid" or simply, CLOE. This software is part of the official data anlysics pipeline that will be eventually used to extract cosmological constraints of the Euclid data. Within the consortium, she is also co-leading the responsible group in charge of testing models beyond-Standard Cosmological Models to discernish the nature of Dark Matter or Dark Energy, or to test alternative inflationary models.