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Disputation: Mattia Mina

Doctoral candidate Mattia Mina at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, is  defending the thesis "Cosmology at small scales: ultra-light dark matter and baryon cycles in galaxies" for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor.

portrait photo of a young, smiling man
Doctoral candidate Mattia Mina. Photo: UiO.

The PhD defence and trial lecture will be fully digital and streamed directly using Zoom. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.

Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the audience to ask ex auditorio questions either written or oral. This can be requested by clicking 'Participants -> Raise hand'. 

  • Join the disputation

    The meeting opens for participation just before the disputation starts, and closes for new participants approximately 15 minutes after the defence has begun.
    • Download Zoom

    • Submit the request to get access to the thesis (.pdf)

Trial lecture - time and place

28.10.20 10:15, Digitally

Cosmological implications of GW190521

  • Join the trial lecture

    The meeting opens for participation just before 10:15 (a.m.) and closes for new participants approximately 15 minutes after the trial lecture has begun.

Conferral summary

Mattia Mina utførte forskingen sin innenfor feltet kosmologi og astrofysikk. Hans fokus lå på mulige løsninger på småskalaproblemer i standardmodellen for kosmologi, og undersøke nye modeller av mørk materie og galaksers fysikk. 

Main research findings

The standard model of cosmology has been quite successful in describing how baryonic matter and dark matter cluster by means of gravity, form the structures we can see today while looking at the sky, and it can reproduce many of the general properties of the observed Universe. However, on the scales of individual galaxies, this model has several complications due to the fact that the true nature of dark matter is still unknown and physical processes involving ordinary matter withing galaxies are not fully understood.

By means of computer simulations, I first studied a specific class of dark matter models, called Ultra-Light Dark Matter. I showed that these models better describe some of the properties of dark matter halos, and they develop distinct features which can be tested against astronomical observations.

Then, I studied how stars can affect the life cycle of galaxies and dark matter halos. I showed that using a realistic model for supernova explosions can potentially solve the discrepancies between the theoretical predictions of the standard model of cosmology and astronomical observations, reproducing dwarf galaxies and dark matter halos that closely resemble observed ones.

 

Contact information for the Department

    Published Oct. 8, 2020 10:12 AM - Last modified Jan. 2, 2024 10:23 AM