COSMOlogy BEyond Standard Techniques: a program to exploit cosmic voids for precision cosmology

Introduction

Cosmology addresses the fundamental questions about our Universe: what is it made of? How does it evolve? Observations suggest that the Universe is undergoing an accelerated expansion. To explain it, cosmologists hypothesize the existence of a mysterious component: dark energy.

Current Challenges

Despite major recent advances in the field, traditional methods in cosmological analysis have failed to provide a thorough understanding of dark energy. Large-scale surveys, mapping the distribution of billions of galaxies in the Universe, allow us to look back in time and encompass the era when dark energy rises. They are a powerful tool to address our fundamental questions.

Next Generation Surveys

The next generation of surveys, and in particular the ESA Euclid mission, will map the Universe with high-quality measurements reaching unprecedented precision. These surveys will sample the galaxy distribution in detail, also in the emptier regions with fewer galaxies: voids.

Void Cosmology

Void cosmology is in its golden age and constitutes an increasingly active sector of galaxy clustering analysis. By measuring void properties, we obtain stringent constraints on cosmological parameters. Voids allow us to perform a novel and independent analysis of large-scale structure data, bringing us into the regime of COSMOlogy BEyond Standard Techniques.

Importance of Voids

Voids are extremely sensitive to the properties of dark energy and neutrinos, making them a powerful tool to test general relativity in a new regime.

COSMOBEST Program

COSMOBEST is an ambitious ERC program aiming to exploit voids as a novel and robust tool to shed light on the puzzles of modern cosmology. It capitalizes on the PI's wide experience in building void science in large collaborations, with a strong focus on calibration-free techniques and systematics control.

Goals and Leadership

With COSMOBEST, I will lead void analysis from modern data, guaranteeing for Europe a worldwide leadership in delivering constraints on dark energy, neutrinos, and general relativity from the next generation of surveys.