Ian Dell'Antonio
Assistant Professor:
Physics
Phone: +1 401 863 1154
Phone 2: +1 401 863 2247
Ian_Dell'antonio@Brown.EDU
My research centers on observational cosmology, the experimental measurement of the fundamental properties of the Universe. I am a leader of two international projects (The Deep Lens Survey and JEDI) that use gravitational lensing to measure the distribution and nature of the dark matter and dark energy that permeate the universe. I have been member of the Brown faculty since 1999, and worked at Bell Laboratories and the National Optical Astronomy Observatories before coming to Brown.
Research Description
The study of cosmology has been revolutionized in the past few decades by the vast improvement in telescopes, detectors, and data analysis techniques. The new observations have confirmed our general picture of the evolution of the universe from a hot, nearly homogeneous initial state, but at the same time presented new puzzles. First, the mass content of the universe is primarily in some unknown form, called dark matter, which exceeds the ordinary atomic matter by a factor of about 5. Second, the universe is accelerating its expansion, a condition that must be caused by some (unknown) dark energy. Discovering the nature of the dark matter and the dark energy, and understanding the role they play in the formation of the galaxies, clusters, and superclusters of galaxies we see today is now the most pressing task facing cosmologists.
Within this context, I am involved in several projects aimed at addressing the nature of the dark matter and dark energy and the evolution of the structures we see, using a variety of astrophysical techniques.
I am involved in two separate major projects that use gravitational lensing to measure the matter and energy content of the universe.
Gravitational lensing uses the warping of space-time that Einstein's General Relativity predicts for mass-energy as a tool; by investigating the distortion of distant objects, one can reconstruct the matter and energy that lies between us and the distant universe.
In general, the distortions are small, and must be analysed statistically--this is known as the field of weak lensing.
The two weak-lensing projects that occupy most of my time are
the Deep Lens Survey (DLS), and the Joint Efficient Dark energy Investigation (JEDI). I am co-PI of the DLS project, and leader of the weak lensing team on the JEDI satellite mission.
Honors and Awards
Professor Dell'Antonio is the recipient of an National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award and of a 2002 PECASE (Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers) award from the White House office of Science.
Affiliations
Professor Dell'Antonio is a member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
Teaching Experience
The courses I am teaching in 2005-2006 are PH0027 (fall) and PH0128 (spring). PH0027 (Introduction to Astronomy)
is an introduction to the study of astronomy geared to concentrators in the sciences (or those comfortable with mathematics).
The course is taught seminar-style, with emphasis on student interaction and on hands-on demonstrations. In addition, there is a significant laboratory component using the telescope facility on the roof of Barus&Holley as well as Brown's historic Ladd Observatory and the ``dark(er) sky" site at Jerimoth Hill. PH0128 (Introduction to Cosmology) is a rigorous junior-level course intended to introduce students to the theory and experiments that inform our understanding of the Universe. The topics covered range from General Relativity and the mathematical description of the expanding Universe to the search for Dark Matter and Cosmological Inflation.
In past years, I have also taught PH0021, PH0025, and PH0028.
Funded Research
Professor Dell'Antonio's research is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), with additional support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Research grants:
NSF: AST-0134753: "PECASE: Measuring Cosmology and the Evolution of Structure via Gravitational Lensing", $589,070, 09/2002-08/2007
NASA: "Chandra Observations of the DLS Shear-Selected Cluster Survey", $12,912, 03/2005-03/2006
NASA: "XMM-Newton Observations of the DLS Shear-Selected Cluster Survey"
NASA: "JDEM Concept Study: the Joint Efficient Dark-energy Investigation (JEDI)", pending.
NSF: "MRI: Acquisition of a Mini-Supercomputer for Scientific Computation", pending.
Web Links
Curriculum Vitae
Read Ian Dell'Antonio's full Faculty Research Profile.
