Alvise Raccanelli
I am an Associate Professor in the Galileo Galilei Physics and Astronomy department at the University of Padova, working on various aspects of theoretical cosmology, mainly focusing on the use of the large-scale structure of the Universe to test fundamental physics, theories of gravity, models of dark matter and other cosmological models. I am also interested in studying how we can use forthcoming radio surveys for cosmology.
At the moment I am particularly interested in gravitational waves. I am working on trying to understand if Primordial Black Holes can make up all or a part of the Dark Matter, and if GW from BH-BH mergers are in fact signatures of PBH Dark Matter. I am also interested in investigating the indirect detection of gravitational waves by using observations of the large-scale structure of the Universe.
I use observations of the clustering of structures across cosmic time to test cosmological models and theories of gravity on a wide range of scales. My main current interests include redshift-space distortions, baryon acoustic oscillations and the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. In particular, at the moment I am interested in how to model the n-point galaxy correlation function on very large scales, including geometrical and General Relativistic effects, and how to use galaxy clustering to test a variety of cosmological models and parameters.
Before my current position, I was a fellow in the Theoretical physics department at CERN; before that, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Barcelona, in the group of Prof. Licia Verde, and before that, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, working with Prof. Marc Kamionkowski, Prof. Alex Szalay and Prof. Joe Silk on several aspects of theoretical and observational cosmology, in particular on primordial black holes, the early universe and redshift-space distortions analyses. During my first postdoc I was at the California Institute of Technology and NASA JPL, working within the group of Dr. Olivier Dore.
EXPERIENCE
2023-
Associate Professor
University of Padova
Associate Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Padova.
Working in the Cosmology group, focusing on the large-scale structure of the Universe and gravitational waves.
Part of the science teams of astrophysics experiments such as Euclid, the SKA, the Einstein Telescope and LISA.
2020-2023
Assistant Professor
University of Padova
Assistant Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Padova.
2018-2020
CERN Fellow
CERN
CERN fellow in the Theoretical Physics department.
Focusing on Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics and Gravity.
2016-2018
Marie-Skłodowska-Curie fellow
University of Barcelona
I received a grant in the H2020 program of the European Commission to work as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Barcelona.
Working in the group of Prof. Licia Verde on various aspects of theoretical cosmology, mainly focusing on the use of the large-scale structure of the Universe to test fundamental physics, theories of gravity, models of dark matter and other cosmological models. I am also interested in studying how we can use forthcoming radio surveys for cosmology.
2014-2016
Postdoctoral fellow
Johns Hopkins University
For my second postdoc I was Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, where I worked with Prof. Marc Kamionkowski, Prof. Alex Szalay, and Prof. Joseph Silk; I used observations of the clustering of structures across cosmic time to test cosmological models and theories of gravity on a wide range of scales. My main interests included redshift-space distortions, baryon acoustic oscillations, the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect and gravitational waves, in particular in relation to the model where primordial black holes comprise the dark matter.
2014-2016
Postdoctoral Scholar
NASA JPL &
California Institute of Technology
During my first postdoctoral position I worked at NASA JPL and the California Institute of Technology, under the supervision of Dr. Olivier Doré, on the Large Scale Structure of the Universe. In particular I worked on how to model the galaxy correlation function on large scales, including general relativistic and geometry effects; this is going to be a fundamental part of future cosmological analyses that will be performed with forthcoming and planned galaxy surveys such as PFS, DESI, LSST, Euclid, WFIRST and the SKA. I used precise models of galaxy clustering to test cosmological models and their parameters, including models for gravity, dark matter and the primordial universe.
EDUCATION
2008-2011
PhD
Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation,
University of Portsmouth
I obtained my Ph.D. from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) at the University of Portsmouth, in England, working under the supervision of Prof. Will Percival on tests of cosmological structure growth. In particular, I focused on Redshift-Space Distortions on large scales: we developed and tested a formalism that allows the inclusion of galaxy pairs with wide angular separation, and then applied it to a real data analysis. At the ICG I also worked with Dr. David Bacon on how to use forthcoming radio surveys to perform cosmological studies; this granted me the participation to the cosmology working group and the planning of future radio surveys.
2007-2008
INAF fellow
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
Following my graduation, I had a fellowship at the Astronomical Observatory of Padova under a contract with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), to work with Prof. Gianfranco De Zotti on the ISW.
2007
M.Sc. in Astronomy
University of Padova
I completed my Master of Science in Astronomy in Italy, at the University of Padova, under the supervision of Prof. Sabino Matarrese and Prof. Giuseppe Tormen. My thesis was based on a study of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect via the correlation of NVSS radio sources with CMB maps.
MEDIA
Selected media coverage of my research
Primordial Black Holes
Square Kilometre Array
Research
Multi-messenger Cosmology; Interface between Theoretical and Observational Cosmology; Planning and optimization of future experiments; Gravitational Waves Cosmology and Black Holes
I am an assistant professor at the University of Padova, working on the interface between theoretical and observational cosmology; most recently, I have been working on multi-messenger cosmology, i.e., the combination of gravitational waves and photons (at different wavelengths) to study cosmological models and early universe physics. I also use observations of the clustering of structures across cosmic time to test cosmological models and theories of gravity on a wide range of scales. More recently I started being interested in the applications of machine learning to cosmology.
My main current interests include: gravitational waves, large-scale structure of the Universe, cosmology with radio surveys, and how we can use all these observations to test cosmological models and fundamental physics. I am part of the cosmology working group of several galaxy surveys, both in optical and radio, and gravitational wave experiments.
I am part of several experiments and missions
• Member of the Euclid Galaxy clustering and Theory; working groups
– co-leader of WP10: other probes
• Coordinator and co-leader of the SKA Gravitational Waves Working Group
• Member of the SKA Cosmology Working Group
• Member of the EMU Cosmology Working Group
• Member of the LISA Collaboration – Cosmology; Fundamental Physics working groups
• Member of the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time
Dark Energy Science Collaboration
• Member of the 3G Consortium for third generation GW interferometers
• Member of the ATLAS-probe proposal
• Member of the LRA Lunar Radio Array project
Research concept cloud
scientific publications
Selected publications
Most relevant papers for my current research projects
Did LIGO Detect Dark Matter?
Bird, S., Cholis, I., Muñoz, J. B., Ali-Haïmoud, Y., Kamionkowski, M., Kovetz, E. D., Raccanelli, A., & Riess, A. G.
(2016), Physical Review Letters, 116, 201301
Gravitational wave astronomy with radio galaxy surveys
Raccanelli, A.
(2017), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 469, 656
Determining the progenitors of merging black-hole binaries
Raccanelli, A., Kovetz, E. D., Bird, S., Cholis, I., & Muñoz, J. B.
(2016), Physical Review D, 94, 023516
Testing gravity using large-scale redshift-space distortions
Raccanelli, A., Bertacca, D., Pietrobon, D., Schmidt, F., Samushia, L., Bartolo, N., Doré, O., Matarrese, S., & Percival, W. J.
(2013), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 436, 89
Cosmological measurements with forthcoming radio continuum surveys
Raccanelli, A., Zhao, G.-B., Bacon, D. J., Jarvis, M. J., Percival, W. J., Norris, R. P., Röttgering, H., Abdalla, F. B., Cress, C. M., Kubwimana, J.-C., Lindsay, S., Nichol, R. C., Santos, M. G., & Schwarz, D. J.
(2012), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 424, 801
Simulating redshift-space distortions for galaxy pairs with wide angular separation
Raccanelli, A., Samushia, L., & Percival, W. J.
(2010), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 409, 1525
GW×LSS: chasing the progenitors of merging binary black holes
Scelfo, G., Bellomo, N., Raccanelli, A., Matarrese, S., & Verde, L.
(2018), Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2018, 039
Peering beyond the horizon with standard sirens and redshift drift
Jimenez, R., Raccanelli, A., Verde, L., & Matarrese, S.
(2018), Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2018, 002
Doppler term in the galaxy two-point correlation function: Wide-angle, velocity, Doppler lensing and cosmic acceleration effects
Raccanelli, A., Bertacca, D., Jeong, D., Neyrinck, M. C., & Szalay, A. S.
(2018), Physics of the Dark Universe, 19, 109
Cosmological measurements with general relativistic galaxy correlations
Raccanelli, A., Montanari, F., Bertacca, D., Doré, O., & Durrer, R.
(2016), Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2016, 009
Measuring redshift-space distortion with future SKA surveys
Raccanelli, A., Bull, P., Camera, S., Blake, C., Ferreira, P., Maartens, R., Santos, M., Bull, P., Bacon, D., Doré, O., Ferreira, P., Viel, M., & Zhao, G. B.
(2015), Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array (AASKA14), 31
Large-scale 3D galaxy correlation function and non-Gaussianity
Raccanelli, A., Bertacca, D., Doré, O., & Maartens, R.
(2014), Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2014, 022
Interpreting large-scale redshift-space distortion measurements
Samushia, L., Percival, W. J., & Raccanelli, A.
(2012), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 420, 2102
A reassessment of the evidence of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect through the WMAP-NVSS correlation
Raccanelli, A., Bonaldi, A., Negrello, M., Matarrese, S., Tormen, G., & de Zotti, G.
(2008), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 386, 2161
Survey papers
Fundamental physics with the Square Kilometre Array,
Weltman, A., Bull, P., Camera, S., Kelley, K., Padmanabhan, H., Pritchard, J., Raccanelli, A., Riemer-Sørensen, S., Shao, L., Andrianomena, S., Athanassoula, E., Bacon, D., Barkana, R., Bertone, G., Bœhm, C., Bonvin, C., Bosma, A., Brüggen, M., Burigana, C., Calore, F., Cembranos, J. A. R., Clarkson, C., Connors, R. M. T., Cruz-Dombriz, Á. de . la ., Dunsby, P. K. S., Fonseca, J., Fornengo, N., Gaggero, D., Harrison, I., Larena, J., Ma, Y.-Z., Maartens, R., Méndez-Isla, M., Mohanty, S. D., Murray, S., Parkinson, D., Pourtsidou, A., Quinn, P. J., Regis, M., Saha, P., Sahlén, M., Sakellariadou, M., Silk, J., Trombetti, T., Vazza, F., Venumadhav, T., Vidotto, F., Villaescusa-Navarro, F., Wang, Y., Weniger, C., Wolz, L., Zhang, F., & Gaensler, B. M.
(2020), Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 37, e002
Cosmology with the SPHEREX All-Sky Spectral Survey,
Doré, O., Bock, J., Ashby, M., Capak, P., Cooray, A., de Putter, R., Eifler, T., Flagey, N., Gong, Y., Habib, S., Heitmann, K., Hirata, C., Jeong, W.-S., Katti, R., Korngut, P., Krause, E., Lee, D.-H., Masters, D., Mauskopf, P., Melnick, G., Mennesson, B., Nguyen, H., Öberg, K., Pullen, A., Raccanelli, A., Smith, R., Song, Y.-S., Tolls, V., Unwin, S., Venumadhav, T., Viero, M., Werner, M., & Zemcov, M.
(2014), arXiv e-prints, arXiv:1412.4872
Extragalactic science, cosmology, and Galactic archaeology with the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph,
Takada, M., Ellis, R. S., Chiba, M., Greene, J. E., Aihara, H., Arimoto, N., Bundy, K., Cohen, J., Doré, O., Graves, G., Gunn, J. E., Heckman, T., Hirata, C. M., Ho, P., Kneib, J.-P., Le Fèvre, O., Lin, L., More, S., Murayama, H., Nagao, T., Ouchi, M., Seiffert, M., Silverman, J. D., Sodré, L., Spergel, D. N., Strauss, M. A., Sugai, H., Suto, Y., Takami, H., & Wyse, R.
(2014), Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 66, R1
Radio Continuum Surveys with Square Kilometre Array Pathfinders,
Norris, R. P., Afonso, J., Bacon, D., Beck, R., Bell, M., Beswick, R. J., Best, P., Bhatnagar, S., Bonafede, A., Brunetti, G., Budavári, T., Cassano, R., Condon, J. J., Cress, C., Dabbech, A., Feain, I., Fender, R., Ferrari, C., Gaensler, B. M., Giovannini, G., Haverkorn, M., Heald, G., Van der Heyden, K., Hopkins, A. M., Jarvis, M., Johnston-Hollitt, M., Kothes, R., Van Langevelde, H., Lazio, J., Mao, M. Y., Martínez-Sansigre, A., Mary, D., Mcalpine, K., Middelberg, E., Murphy, E., Padovani, P., Paragi, Z., Prandoni, I., Raccanelli, A., Rigby, E., Roseboom, I. G., Röttgering, H., Sabater, J., Salvato, M., Scaife, A. M. M., Schilizzi, R., Seymour, N., Smith, D. J. B., Umana, G., Zhao, G.-B., & Zinn, P.-C.
(2013), Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 30, e020
The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III DR9 Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity,
Ross, A. J., Percival, W. J., Carnero, A., Zhao, G.-. bo ., Manera, M., Raccanelli, A., Aubourg, E., Bizyaev, D., Brewington, H., Brinkmann, J., Brownstein, J. R., Cuesta, A. J., da Costa, L. A. N., Eisenstein, D. J., Ebelke, G., Guo, H., Hamilton, J.-C., Magaña, M. V., Malanushenko, E., Malanushenko, V., Maraston, C., Montesano, F., Nichol, R. C., Oravetz, D., Pan, K., Prada, F., Sánchez, A. G., Samushia, L., Schlegel, D. J., Schneider, D. P., Seo, H.-J., Sheldon, A., Simmons, A., Snedden, S., Swanson, M. E. C., Thomas, D., Tinker, J. L., Tojeiro, R., & Zehavi, I.
(2013), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 428, 1116
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope: Dark Energy Science Collaboration,
LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration
(2012), arXiv e-prints, arXiv:1211.0310
EMU: Evolutionary Map of the Universe,
Norris, R. P., Hopkins, A. M., Afonso, J., Brown, S., Condon, J. J., Dunne, L., Feain, I., Hollow, R., Jarvis, M., Johnston-Hollitt, M., Lenc, E., Middelberg, E., Padovani, P., Prandoni, I., Rudnick, L., Seymour, N., Umana, G., Andernach, H., Alexander, D. M., Appleton, P. N., Bacon, D., Banfield, J., Becker, W., Brown, M. J. I., Ciliegi, P., Jackson, C., Eales, S., Edge, A. C., Gaensler, B. M., Giovannini, G., Hales, C. A., Hancock, P., Huynh, M. T., Ibar, E., Ivison, R. J., Kennicutt, R., Kimball, A. E., Koekemoer, A. M., Koribalski, B. S., López-Sánchez, Á. R., Mao, M. Y., Murphy, T., Messias, H., Pimbblet, K. A., Raccanelli, A., Randall, K. E., Reiprich, T. H., Roseboom, I. G., Röttgering, H., Saikia, D. J., Sharp, R. G., Slee, O. B., Smail, I., Thompson, M. A., Urquhart, J. S., Wall, J. V., & Zhao, G.-B.
(2011), Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 28, 215
Research Topics
Galaxy Clustering and Redshift-Space Distortions
Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter
Galaxy Surveys planning
21cm intensity mapping
Cosmology with Radio Surveys
Tests of General Relativity
Gravitational Waves
Early Universe cosmology
Students
I am very passionate about mentoring.
Here are some of the students I am supervising or have mentored in the past,
for both PhD and Master thesis
PhD Students
Eleonora Vanzan
Francesco Spezzati
Federico Semenzato
Jessie De Kruijf
Master Students
Anny Naomi Antunovich
Myrto Maglakara
Caterina Scarpel
Former PhD Students
Jose Luis Bernal - Currently junior faculty at University of Santander (Spain)
Nicola Bellomo - Currently postdoc at University of Texas, Austin (Texas)
Sarah Libanore - Currently postdoc at Ben Gurion University (Israel)
Former Master Students
Giulio Scelfo - PhD at SISSA (Italy), currently data scientist
Alba Kalaja - Currently PhD student at VSI Groningen (Netherlands)
Francesco Spezzati - Currently PhD student at University of Padova (Italy)
Alessandro Rubin - Currently data scientist
Michele Bosi - Formerly data scientist at Ferrari, currently PhD student at SISSA
Elena Vanetti - Currently working in cosmology at University of Padova (Italy)
Andrea Begnoni - Currently PhD student at University of Padova (Italy)
Federico Semenzato - Currently PhD student at University of Padova (Italy)
Ottavia Truttero - Currently PhD student at University of Edinburgh (UK)
Alberto Magaraggia - Currently PhD student at University of Miami (USA)
METRICS
Citations
My collaborators network
(larger font means more papers together, color groups identify topics )
Students supervision, research opportunities
If you would like to work with me, reach out for funding opportunities and grants sponsorship
Interested students are welcome to contact me for Bachelor, Masters and PhD thesis supervision
Master theses and PhD projects are available in
PhD positions at UniPD available. Contact me for more info.
I am offering PhD projects for the PhD in Physics:
- Primordial Black Holes Cosmology
- Gravitational waves and Large Scale Structure
- Modeling the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe for future cosmological surveys
For the PhD in Astronomy:
- Tests of cosmological models with large-scale galaxy clustering
Bachelor and Master theses available on:
-
Gravitational wave cosmology
-
Galaxy clustering
-
Gravitational waves - Large scale structure cross-correlations
-
Primordial black holes
-
Intensity mapping from the dark ages
-
Cosmology with future large surveys
-
Astrophysics from the Moon
Contact me at alvise.raccanelli.1@unipd.it for info and details
Teaching
PhD positions at UniPD available. Contact me for more info.
2020/2021
- Physics Laboratory I, Degree in Astronomy
- Electromagnetism, Master Degree in Geophysics for natural risks and resources
- Exploring the Universe with Gravitational Waves, PhD course in Physics
2021/2022
- Physics Laboratory I, Degree in Astronomy
- Electromagnetism, Master Degree in Geophysics for natural risks and resources
- Exploring the Universe with Gravitational Waves, PhD course in Physics
2022/2023
- Astronomy, Degree in Mathematics
- Electromagnetism, Master Degree in Geophysics for natural risks and resources
- Exploring the Universe with Gravitational Waves, PhD course in Physics
