DARKER
This project aims at determining the nature of dark energy and dark matter, which together make 95% of the Universe and they are still unknown. DARKER is expected to achieve these goals by significantly enlarging the number of strong lensing systems (at all scales) with the first-ever systematic search in the time domain. Gravitational lensing is one of the most powerful tools for constraining the “dark Universe”, as it can directly infer dark energy (via gravitational time delays) and dark matter (via low-mass lenses).
Planned activities:
Part of the project is devoted to analyzing high-energy, high-time resolution observations to search for low-mass lenses, currently missed by standard techniques for lens searching. The abundance of low-mass lenses is a key constraint on the nature of dark matter. Furthermore, we expect to find hundreds of gravitational lenses in optical all-sky surveys, which will allow us to determine the Hubble constant with a precision of 1%.
Duration: 3 years
Financing program: FIS 2
Referent: Cristiana Spingola (INAF)
Collaborators: Marcello Giroletti (INAF), Davide Massari (INAF)
Planned activities:
Part of the project is devoted to analyzing high-energy, high-time resolution observations to search for low-mass lenses, currently missed by standard techniques for lens searching. The abundance of low-mass lenses is a key constraint on the nature of dark matter. Furthermore, we expect to find hundreds of gravitational lenses in optical all-sky surveys, which will allow us to determine the Hubble constant with a precision of 1%.
Start:
2026Duration: 3 years
Financing program: FIS 2
Referent: Cristiana Spingola (INAF)
Collaborators: Marcello Giroletti (INAF), Davide Massari (INAF)
For further information: DARKER