Recent Talks

I revisit the claim of Dark Energy detection after stacking CMB data on the angular position of voids and superclusters in Sloan Data. I examine the theoretically expected amplitude for the ISW-induced signal and explore its scale dependence. I next confront these predictions with results obtained from real WMAP data, and evaluate the degree of agreement and the possible presence of contaminants. In a more general context, I address the possibility of unveiling the signature of Dark Energy on the CMB by looking at isolated regions on the sky hosting high-threshold projected under/over-densities: this constitutes a novel approach since it is less sensitive to large angle systematics commonly present in large scale structure surveys.

To understand the formation and evolution of galaxies, it is important to have a full comprehension of the role played by Metallicity, Star Formation Rate (SFR), and stellar mass of galaxies. The interplay of these parameters at different redshifts will substantially affect the evolution of galaxies and, as a consequence, the evolution of these parameters provides important constraints for the galaxy evolution models. We studied the relationships and dependencies between the SFR, stellar mass, and gas metallicity of star forming galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) and Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) surveys. We have combined both surveys finding evidence of SFR and metallicity evolution for galaxies down to redshift ~0.2. Also, we have proved the existence of a Fundamental Plane in the 3D space formed by the SFR, mass and metallicity for the SDSS and GAMA samples.