PROFESSOR PIERLUIGI MONACO

To tackle the problem of uncovering the nature of the dark sector, the next generation of galaxy surveys will sample a large fraction of the observable Universe, tracking with high accuracy the era when dark energy starts to accelerate its expansion. With such high statistics, the error budget will be dominated by systematics. After discussing the main cosmological probes that will be used, the speaker will give a pedagogical overview of the various sources of systematics that he is investigating within the Euclid collaboration, showing that the total errorbar on cosmological parameters will be affected not only by our ability to characterize the instrument, but also by our ability to make accurate theoretical predictions, and by our control of astrophysical foregrounds like light extinction by Milky Way dust. This program will require the production of thousands of numerical simulations of the visible Universe, a very ambitious numerical challenge that can be faced with approximate methods.