Héctor Gil-Marín is awarded the 2023 Leonardo Grant in Physics

These grants are given to researchers with ages between 30 and 45 years old that have especially interesting scientific projects. After thoroughly reviewing more than 100 applications, the BBVA evaluation committee decided to offer one of the grants to the ICCUB-IEEC physicist, to support his research on dark energy using the data of DESI (Dark Energy Survey Instrument) with cutting-edge analysis techniques to maximise the return of information and characterise some of the properties of dark energy.

With this support, the Leonardo Grants aim to foster talent and originality in research. Each grant consists of  40.000€ that will help researchers carry out their project and strive towards professional consolidation.

Dark energy

The current understanding of the cosmos is governed by the standard model of LCDM cosmology, from its acronym Lambda-Cold Dark Matter, proposed at the end of the 20th century. This model postulates the existence of a mysterious fluid, dark energy, which would explain the accelerated expansion of the universe. According to the most recent observations, this fluid represents about 69% of the total energy content of the universe. However, despite being the dominant element and key to understanding the future evolution of the cosmos, we know very little about its dynamics or nature.

“Dark energy is a label used to refer to something of unknown nature to us, but which is necessary to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe,” explains Gil-Marín. “During the first 6,000 million years of our Cosmos, approximately the first half of its existence, the universe expanded less and less rapidly, and we can easily understand this as a consequence of the gravity of galaxies pulling on each other. Later on, however, the universe began to expand in an accelerated way, and due to that we postulated the existence of something that counteracts the force of gravity and makes the universe expand more and more rapidly. We coined this phenomenon with the name dark energy and it is one of the great mysteries of physics,” he adds. In his project, Gil-Marín aims to shed light on this enigmatic component of the universe.