I’m really excited to welcome the third postdoc in my group! Today Guan-Wen Yuan (袁官文) joins my group as the second of the 2 DARKTRACK-funded postdocs (of the two, the astroparticle physicist), with the other being Marco Calzà. Guan-Wen did his PhD at the University of Science and Technology of China and at Purple Mountain Observatory under the supervision of Jin Chang, PI of the DAMPE experiment, and working on a bunch of very interesting things related but not limited to dark matter, BHs, and gravitational waves. And with the arrival of Guan-Wen our group is now complete. Now we just need to get lots of excellent science out. Welcome to Italy Guan-Wen!
Admissions for PhD in Physics in Trento!
The University of Trento welcomes applications for admission to the 40th cycle of the PhD in Physics, for positions starting on November 1, 2024 (see here for Italian link, here for English link, and here for much more detailed information): this year we have a total of 19 positions, 14 of which with scholarship, and 4 of which are “open positions”, i.e. not tied to any specific topic. Applicants interested in working within the Theoretical Gravitation and Cosmology group (basically either with me or Prof. Rinaldi) would be competing for these 4 “open positions” - however, another possible channel for working with us is to apply for one of the 3 INFN funded-positions (Section “D, E - Particle, astroparticle, nuclear, theoretical physics, related technologies and applications, including medical Physics”), which are de facto “open positions” (as long as the topic one ends up working on is related to INFN research themes, for instance the group’s current PhD students Chiara Cecchini and Davide Pedrotti were awarded one of these positions). I cannot stress enough that competition for these positions is extremely strong, with an oversubscription ratio much higher than for the other (reserved) positions: a corollary is that there is no guarantee our group will be taking new PhD students, given that it really depends on the personal interests of those who will be awarded these positions (however, I can anticipate that I will be taking a most one new PhD student - for a rough guideline on possible topics one could work on with me, please see this link, section “First call 40°cycle - Other research topics”, subsection “FT - Theoretical and computational physics”, and refer to the topic “Dark matter and dark energy in the era of precision multi-messenger cosmology and cosmic tensions (Vagnozzi)”). If you are interested in working with us, please make this very clear in your “lettera motivazionale” (“statement of purpose”), which plays an extremely important role in the evaluation of candidates, so please take it very seriously. The application deadline is May 15, 2024 at 16:00 Italy time, but applicants are strongly encouraged to apply well in advance of the deadline - if you are interested in working within our group, please do not hesitate to reach out either to me or Prof. Rinaldi (or both) and apply as soon as possible!
Jun-Qian Jiang joins my group!
I’m very happy to welcome my latest group member, Jun-Qian Jiang (江俊钱)! Jun-Qian is currently a PhD student at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Prof. Yun-Song Piao, and has been doing a lot of interesting and very diversified work in the fields of cosmological tensions, inflation, gravitational waves, and so on. He joins my group for the next 6 months as a long-term visiting PhD student. We still have to figure out what we will be working on, but it likely will have to do with cosmological tensions and possibly implications for inflation. Welcome Jun-Qian, and I hope you will enjoy your stay in Italy!
Journal club/group meetings restart
This afternoon we restarted the journal club tradition for the Theoretical Gravitation and Cosmology group, which basically plays the role of our informal group meetings. Between faculty, visiting faculty, postdocs, PhD students, and MSc students, it was great to see 19 of us in the room (with a couple more yet to join us)! After a quick round of presentations, Max, Chiara, and I presented our scale-invariant inflation paper. One of my next tasks will be to update the group’s website, which is chronically out-of-date. And hopefully I’ll be able to post a group picture soon, once everybody has joined us!
Simony Santos da Costa joins our group!
We’re really happy to welcome Simony Santos da Costa as the second postdoc in our group! Simony will be here for the next two years on a prestigious Caritro Fellowship, and will be working with myself and Max Rinaldi on tests of inflation and dark sector physics through the latest cosmological data, while also developing an ambitious outreach program at MUSE. Simony was last a postdoc at INFN Pisa, where she held one of the prestigious INFN theory fellowships for foreigners (or Italians who have been abroad for long enough). Fun fact: Simony will be sharing an office with Marco Calzà, and they both speak Portuguese (and Italian)! Welcome to our group Simony, and I’m really looking forward to working on many exciting projects together!
Leonardo Comini joins my group!
More members joining my group (and more to come soon)! Today Leonardo Comini has officially begun his Master’s thesis work under my supervision, where he will be studying what a particular class of early JWST observations have to say about ΛCDM. Welcome Leonardo, looking forward to our work together!
Marco Calzà joins my group!
I’m really excited to welcome the first postdoc in my group! Today Marco Calzà joins my group as one of the 2 DARKTRACK-funded postdocs (of the two, the BH theorist). Marco did his PhD at the University of Coimbra under the supervision of João Rosa, working on a bunch of very interesting things BH-related, from superradiance to evaporation. His expertise and interests were simply a perfect fit for what I plan on doing within DARKTRACK, and I really look forward to working together. Welcome Marco (or, to be more precise, welcome back, since he was actually a BSc and MSc student here in Trento some years ago)!
Mattia Scotto joins my group!
My group keeps expanding, and now includes Mattia Scotto as well! He will be working on his Master’s thesis under my supervision, where we plan on studying various cosmological signatures of dark energy models featuring a negative cosmological constant (perfect timing given today’s new preprint!), and how the signatures we will find can help us distinguish these models from the cosmological constant of ΛCDM. Welcome Mattia, and I’m looking forward to our work together!
Davide Pedrotti (re)joins my group!
Today Davide Pedrotti, after an excellent MSc defense, (re)joins my group as a PhD student. We will be starting some very cool work on cosmological tensions, while also carrying on Davide’s earlier research interests in black hole physics. Stay tuned in particular for our upcoming paper on the connection between quasinormal modes and shadows for rotating regular BHs, which constituted a major part of Davide’s MSc thesis! Welcome (back) Davide!
Congratulations to Davide Pedrotti!
Congratulations to Davide Pedrotti, who has won one of the highly competitive “free topic” PhD positions at the University of Trento, financed by INFN! Davide will begin his position at the start of November, and will keep working within our group. Congratulations Davide, and looking forward to continuining working together!
Giovanni Piccoli joins my group!
My group is expanding, and as of today includes also Giovanni Piccoli. He will be working on his Master’s thesis under my supervision, and we plan to explore novel cosmological and terrestrial tests of the (very) small-scale matter power spectrum - no spoilers, you’ll have to wait and see what we come up with! Welcome Giovanni, and looking forward to our work together!
Caritro Postdoctoral Fellowship
We’re hiring, or rather, trying to hire! The call for the 2023 Caritro Postdoctoral Fellowships is open, and the Theoretical Gravitation and Cosmology group led by Max Rinaldi and myself expects to be able to support at most one application. Caritro Fellowships are founded by the Caritro Foundation, and are meant to offer opportunities for professional growth to young researchers who have not turned 35 years old at the start date of the project, through support for research projects with a maximum duration of 24 months to be started in 2023, whose results are expected to benefit (broadly intended) the Province of Trento. We are looking for a young researcher below the age of 35, already in possession of a PhD, and with an excellent research track in cosmology and gravitation broadly intended, with a broad profile at the interface of theory and data, and experience in tests of fundamental physics from cosmological and astrophysical data. If you are interested, please send us an expression of interest following the indications provided in our INSPIRE job ad (with material preferably sent to this AJO eDelivery link - note that there are several stages of selection, please see towards the end of the INSPIRE job ad for more details): please get in touch if you are interested!
New (first) group member!
Today Davide Pedrotti joins my group as a new Master’s student. Davide is enrolled in the Trento-Tübingen Double Degree, and will be jointly supervised by me in Trento, and by Prof. Kostas Kokkotas in Tübingen. While the finer details remain to be defined, Davide’s thesis will be on the topic of quasi-normal modes of black holes beyond GR, their use in testing gravity, and potentially their connection to black hole shadows. Welcome Davide, and looking forward to our work together!