Biography
Oct 2019 - present: Newton-Kavli Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology (KICC), Institute of Astronomy (IoA), and Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge
Oct 2019 - present: Research associate at Homerton College, Cambridge
Sep 2015 - Sep 2019: PhD in Theoretical Physics and research assistant at the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics (OKC), Stockholm University (advisors: Prof. Katherine Freese and Prof. Lars Bergström)
Jan 2015 - Aug 2015: Long-term research visit at the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), University of Copenhagen (advisor: Prof. Subir Sarkar)
Mar 2013 - Dec 2014: MSc in Physics at the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (advisors: Dr. Robert Foot and Prof. Raymond Volkas)
Sep 2012 - Feb 2013: Erasmus exchange at Imperial College London
Sep 2009 - Jul 2012: BSc in Physics at the University of Trento (advisor: Prof. Valter Moretti)
Sep 2009: Violin Diploma (equivalent to BA) at Santa Cecilia Conservatory, Rome
Research
My research interests lie broadly at the intersection of cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics. I work at the interface of data analysis, theory, phenomenology, and experiments. The overarching goal of my research is to connect fundamental physics to precision cosmological and astrophysical data. More specifically, my aim through precision cosmological and astrophysical data is: to identify those models which best describe our Universe, and in particular dark matter and dark energy; to constrain the parameters of these models and define goals for future experiments; and likewise to construct viable data-driven theoretical models. This back-and-forth interplay between existing data, future experiments, and theory, represents my main research strength. I am always on the lookout for new exciting ideas and directions.
On the data side, I tackle a wide variety of measurements, ranging from observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background and the clustering of the Large-Scale Structure, to gravitational waves, and horizon-scale images of black hole shadows. On the theory side, my main focus is on models of dark matter, dark energy, cosmic inflation, and gravitation, especially those with the potential to address some of the most important shortcomings of the standard ΛCDM paradigm on both cosmological and astrophysical scales. My research robustly connects these well-motivated fundamental physics scenarios to precision measurements across a wide range of times and scales.
I joined the University of Cambridge in October 2019 as a Newton-Kavli Fellow within the Kavli Institute for Cosmology (KICC) and the Institute of Astronomy (IoA), jointly funded by the Kavli Foundation and the Isaac Newton Trust. I am also affiliated to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) and am a research associate at Homerton College. Earlier in 2019 I earned my PhD in Theoretical Physics at Stockholm University (you can read my thesis here), where my primary advisor was Prof. Katherine Freese.
Publications
15 main representative publications (for full list of publications with bibliometric details see my INSPIRE profile, my ADS profile, and my Google Scholar profile):
- R. C. Nunes & S. Vagnozzi, Arbitrating the S8 discrepancy with growth rate measurements from Redshift-Space Distortions, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 505 (2021) 5427 [arXiv:2106.01208][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, Consistency tests of ΛCDM from the early integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect: Implications for early-time new physics and the Hubble tension, Phys. Rev. D 104 (2021) 063524 [arXiv:2105.10425][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, L. Visinelli, P. Brax, A.-C. Davis & J. Sakstein, Direct detection of dark energy: the XENON1T excess and future prospects, Phys. Rev. D 104 (2021) 063023 [arXiv:2103.15834][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, A. Loeb & M. Moresco, Eppur è piatto? The cosmic chronometers take on spatial curvature and cosmic concordance, Astrophys. J. 908 (2021) 84 [arXiv:2011.11645][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, E. Di Valentino, S. Gariazzo, A. Melchiorri, O. Mena & J. Silk, The galaxy power spectrum take on spatial curvature and cosmic concordance, Phys. Dark Univ. 33 (2021) 100851 [arXiv:2010.02230][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, Implications of the NANOGrav results for inflation, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. Lett. 502 (2021) L11 [arXiv:2009.13432][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, L. Visinelli, O. Mena & D. F. Mota, Do we have any hope of detecting scattering between dark energy and baryons through cosmology?, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 493 (2020) 1139 [arXiv:1911.12374][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, New physics in light of the H0 tension: An alternative view, Phys. Rev. D 102 (2020) 023518 [arXiv:1907.07569][INSPIRE][ADS]
- C. Bambi, K. Freese, S. Vagnozzi & L. Visinelli, Testing the rotational nature of the supermassive object M87* from the circularity and size of its first image, Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 044057 [arXiv:1904.12983][INSPIRE][ADS]
- A. Casalino, M. Rinaldi, L. Sebastiani & S. Vagnozzi, Alive and well: mimetic gravity and a higher-order extension in light of GW170817, Class. Quant. Grav. 36 (2019) 017001 [arXiv:1811.06830][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, T. Brinckmann, M. Archidiacono, K. Freese, M. Gerbino, J. Lesgourgues & T. Sprenger, Bias due to neutrinos must not uncorrect'd go, JCAP 1809 (2018) 001 [arXiv:1807.04672][INSPIRE][ADS]
- E. Giusarma, S. Vagnozzi, S. Ho, S. Ferraro, K. Freese, R. Kamen-Rubio & K.-B. Luk, Scale-dependent galaxy bias, CMB lensing-galaxy cross-correlation, and neutrino masses, Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 123526 [arXiv:1802.08694][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, E. Giusarma, O. Mena, K. Freese, M. Gerbino, S. Ho & M. Lattanzi, Unveiling ν secrets with cosmological data: neutrino masses and mass hierarchy, Phys. Rev. D 96 (2017) 123503 [arXiv:1701.08172][INSPIRE][ADS]
- S. Vagnozzi, K. Freese & T. H. Zurbuchen, Solar models in light of new high metallicity measurements from solar wind data, Astrophys. J. 839 (2017) 55 [arXiv:1603.05960][INSPIRE][ADS]
- R. Foot & S. Vagnozzi, Dissipative hidden sector dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 023512 (Editors' Suggestion) [arXiv:1409.7174][INSPIRE][ADS]
See my INSPIRE, ADS, and Google Scholar profiles for a complete list of publications with bibliometric details (of the three, INSPIRE is more accurate and complete)
Other Professional Activities
Awards and Prizes
Selected awards and prizes:
- Buchalter Cosmology Prize (3rd prize, 2022)
- "Alfredo di Braccio" Prize, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2021)
- Symmetry Young Investigator Award (2021)
- Springer Thesis Award, Springer Nature (2020)
- "Pio Picchi" Prize, Italian Physical Society (2019)
Press Coverage and Media Appearance
My work has been covered in various popular science (and not) magazines, global news websites, and blogs. Below are links to the 10 main articles discussing my work:
- Brilliant minds at Eddington: Sunny Vagnozzi, Eddington Cambridge news
- On the road to dark energy (with chameleons), Plus Magazine
- Signal from the XENON1T experiment may be a hallmark of dark energy, Forbes
- Bagliori d’energia oscura nel cuore del Gran Sasso, Media INAF (in Italian)
- ¿Ha causado la Energía Oscura los extraños resultados del experimento XENON1T?, ABC (in Spanish)
- Have we detected dark energy? Cambridge scientists say it’s a possibility, University of Cambridge press release (re-posted by hundreds of news outlets throughout the world, including Phys.org and ScienceDaily, see Altmetric)
- Eppur è piatto? Così l’universo torna euclideo, Media INAF (in Italian)
- Di che cosa è fatto il Sole e quando morirà?, Le Scienze (Italian version of Scientific American; in Italian)
- What is the Sun made of and when will it die?, Quanta Magazine
- Hiding in plain sight: the mystery of the Sun's missing matter, New Scientist
