Research
My scientific interests are generally within the field of galaxy formation and evolution and in particular their gaseous and chemical enrichment through cosmic time. Overall, I mainly work within the scope “Gas in and around galaxies with cosmic explosions” (GRACE), which includes observations across the electromagnetic spectrum of energetic, transient phenomena such as fast radio bursts (FRBs), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources (kilonovae), and quasars. These cosmic lighthouses are powerful probes of the interstellar and intergalactic gas in and beyond galaxies in the line of sight. I have particularly been interested in the specific population of absorption systems known as damped Lyman-α absorbers (DLAs). Currently, my main focus is on understanding the baryonic cycle in the most distant galaxies, mapping the three main baryonic states: stars, molecular and atomic gas.
Active collaborations
The fast and fortunate for FRB follow-up (F4, PI: J. X. Prochaska) team is dedicated to the follow-up of fast radio bursts and their host galaxies at optical to infrared wavelengths. Our main science goals are to constrain the FRB progenitor(s) through population studies of their host galaxies and to disentangle the cosmic web correlated with foreground galaxies and their halos. This research is done in collaboration with the CRAFT and realfast collaborations.
ENGRAVE is a newly founded collaboration, performing follow-up observations of Electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave sources at the Very Large Telescope detected by LIGO/Virgo. The overarching goal of this consortium is to use Target of Opportunity observations on the VLT targeting optical to mid-infrared follow-up of merging compact sources such as NS-NS or BH-NS as well as other gravitational wave (burst-type) events.
Stargate (PI: Nial R. Tanvir) is the continuation of the XS-GRB collaboration, now searching for the most exotic GRBs. We have access to almost all instruments mounted at the four VLT unit telescopes, including several other instruments mounted at smaller telescopes all over the world (such as the NOT). The main science goals of this programme are to investigate and obtain follow-up observations of high-redshift GRBs, short GRBs and otherwise peculiar transients.
The 4MOST-Gaia Purely Astrometric Quasar Survey (4G-PAQS, PI: Jens-Kristian Krogager) is a collaboration formed to utilize the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) soon to be installed on the ESO VISTA telescope. This project aims at obtaining spectroscopy of all zero-proper-motion quasar candidates at Galactic latitudes b < -60 deg and brighter than G = 20.5 mag. The overall goal is to study the evolution of neutral hydrogen and metals over cosmic time and the impact of black hole feedback and outflows on galaxy evolution.
The extended Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (ePESSTO+, PI: Cosimo Inserra) is dedicated to observe and follow-up a large variety of exciting new transients such as gravitational wave sources, superluminous supernovae, tidal disruption events and gamma-ray bursts using the New Technology Telescope at the ESO La Silla observatory.