Dark Energy Survey (DES) releases most precise look at the universe’s evolution

May 27, 2021

The Dark Energy Survey collaboration has created the largest ever maps of the distribution and shapes of galaxies, tracing both ordinary and dark matter in the universe out to a distance of more than 7 billion light years. The analysis, which includes the first three years of data from the survey, is consistent with predictions from the current best model of the universe, the standard cosmological model. Nevertheless, there remain hints from DES and other experiments that matter in the current universe is a few percent less clumpy than predicted.

Successful Start of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Follows Record-Setting Trial Run

May 17, 2021

International collaboration aims for 3D map of the universe, unraveling of mysterious ‘dark energy'. IFAE participates in the DESI Barcelona-Madrid Regional Participation Group, made up of researchers from IFAE, ICE-CSIC, CIEMAT and IFT-UAM. The instrumental contribution to DESI of the group consisted of the design, construction and installation of the complete Guiding, Focusing and Alignment system (GFA).

New Instrumented baffle installed at Virgo

April 28, 2021

The installation culminates more than two years of work at IFAE for the design and construction of a novel and innovative device to control and monitor the stray light inside the experiment, a persistent source of noise at interferometers. For the first time a Spanish Institution is making a significant hardware contribution to a worldwide leading gravitational waves experiment using ground-based interferometry.