The proposed research is organized around two different fronts of activity: (1) Preparatory and exploratory work towards the study of the Large Scale Structure (LSS) as sampled by ongoing and future surveys like J-PLUS, J-PAS, Euclid and SKA, and (2) analysis of secondary anisotropies in the microwave maps of QUIJOTE, together with preparatory work in the context of LiteBIRD, the only space mission targeting the intrinsic B-type polarization modes of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB). 

In the first part we address the computation of realistic cosmological forecasts for the 2D and 3D clustering of J-PAS, by applying our pipelines on realistic mocks that resemble the galaxy samples characterized in the ~1 sq.deg area covered by miniJPAS. While a great part of the pipelines are in place, realistic mocks must be built, upon which optimizing our clustering estimators. These tasks are critical if we are to guarantee J-PAS' cosmological constraints at the time data arrive. We also explore further the potential of the angular redshift fluctuations (ARF), an extremely promising cosmological observable introduced by our group, in the context of the J-PLUS, J-PAS, Euclid, and SKA missions.

In the second part, we use CMB data (as collected by the QUIJOTE experiment) and upcoming CMB missions to address two major cosmological questions that remain unanswered: (1) is the radio-excess detected at 1-10 GHz by ARCADE-2 real? If so, does it correlate to extra-galactic structure? (2) How did the first stars pollute the medium with molecules and atoms? At what epochs? The first question can be (at least partially) addressed as of today with QUIJOTE intensity maps at 11, 13, 17, and 19 GHz. But actually these QUIJOTE maps also address the second question, since they open a window to the CO J1->0 integrated emission at redshift z\in[5,9]. While probably the CO J1->0 emission falls below QUIJOTE's sensitivity, the future LiteBIRD mission may actually be able to constrain the metal pollution at redshifts z\in[5,500], since it may be sensitive to the resonant scattering of CMB photons on transitions like CII 158 mu, OI 63 mu, OIII 188 mu, etc. This project attempts to compute the first forecasts on LiteBIRD's sensitivity to the very first metals and molecules in the universe.

For the development of this project, this proposal is applying for two postdocs (one for LSS, one for CMB research) and a PhD student (to focus on the study on theoretical and observational aspects of angular redshift fluctuations).