Research Projects
Doctoral Research: Cosmology from the Early and Late Universe
The Lambda Cold Dark Matter model is the standard model for cosmology, but recently many studies have shown that there are significant tensions in the measurements of its parameters. My doctoral research focuses on probing the sigma-8 and Hubble tensions by using data from a range of redshifts to better understand if measurements agree with the standard cosmological model.
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The mid- to high-redshift aspect of this research focuses on constraining cosmological parameters using weak lensing measurements from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), with a focus on a new set of high-redshift data. With this data we also study the magnification effects of dark matter between the observer and lens galaxies in the DES fiducial sample.
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On the low-redshift end, we will be studying the peculiar velocities of supernova data collected by the HOSTFLOWS team at UAB. We aim to reconstruct the mass density of our local cluster.
Star Cluster Formation in Dark Matter Halos
I study how dark matter haloes could have acted as globular cluster incubators during the age of the universe where stars were just beginning to form. Some previous works suggest that dark matter halos could make passable incubators, however these studies have all focused on the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model. My work focuses on testing if globular clusters formed in Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) halos evolve into the types of globular clusters we see today.
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I run cosmological simulations to study how candidate globular-cluster-hosting SIDM halos would evolve from reionization, and if those globular clusters would evolve to exhibit the characteristics we see today.
Examining the Self-Interaction of Dark Matter through Brightest Cluster Galaxy Offsets
Dark matter interactions are at the forefront of many areas of physics. In particle physics, models such as supersymmetry predict that dark matter interacts with itself through forces other than gravity. Since dark matter does not interact strongly with luminous matter, the only way to test if dark matter actually interacts with itself is to study its behavior on the scale of gravitational interactions. My research focuses on these large-scale interactions by examining the shape of dark matter halos.
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Cold Dark Matter (CDM) predicts that dark matter does not interact with itself. This means that the shape of CDM halos has a singularity-like ("cuspy") density profile. Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) then has a more distributed ("cored") profile. Simulations show that astronomical objects are more offset from the centers of mass of SIDM halos. For my undergraduate thesis, I took observations from the Dark Energy Survey and found that the brightest central galaxy in galaxy clusters were offset from their halo centers of mass, exhibiting evidence of dark matter self-interaction.