observations and phenomenology Irene Sendra - ADDI - UPV/EHU

168 Pages·2013·6.68 MB·Spanish

Cosmology in an accelerated universe:
observations and phenomenology
Irene Sendra Server
Ph.D. Thesis
Department of Theoretical Physics and History of Science
University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Leioa, May 2012

Department of Theoretical Physics and History of Science
Cosmology in an accelerated universe:
observations and phenomenology
Supervised by Professor Ruth Lazcoz S´aez
from the University of the Basque Country
Submitted by Irene Sendra Server
for the degree of Doctor of Physics

Als meus pares.

... i endevinar cavalls i temporals llunyans;
aclarir, destriar, amb l’orella apegada,
aplicada a la terra, la pobra i bruta terra,...
Vicent Andr´es Estell´es
Llibre de meravelles
“Bon guaret, fa bona collita”
Dita popular

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis is based on the research carried out at the Department of Theoretical
Physics and History of Science at the University of the Basque Country during the
years 2008-2012 with the financial support of the Ph.D. FPI fellowship contract from
the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BES-2008-005967) linked to the
research project FIS2007-61800.
It is almost four years since I began to work on this Ph.D. thesis. It has been a long
journey through the bizarre world of cosmology. During these years, I have had the chance
to meet many people who have helped me in many different ways towards the completion
of this thesis. Their encouragement and advice have allowed me to find the correct way and
go ahead all the time. For that reason, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each
of them and make them participate in this moment.
First of all, I want to thank the person who has really made this possible, my supervisor
Ruth Lazkoz. She has became an irreplaceable guide and friend during these years. Thanks
Ruth for the patience, support and all the confidence and faith you have put on me. We
both know that a PhD is not exactly a bed of roses, but with your courage you have taught
me how to break the back of the beast.
I thank all members of the Department for their support and pleasant working atmosphere:
Juan M. Aguirregabiria, Igor Bandos, Montserrat Barrio, Alberto Chamorro, In˜aki
Garay,LuisHerrera,PhilippHyllus,MicheleModugno,Mart´ınRivas,GunarSchnell,
Jos´e M. Mart´ın Senovilla, G´eza T´oth, Manuel A´. Valle and Lianao Wu. Specially,
I would like to thank Jon Urrestilla for his good advices and fruitful discussions in the
last stages of this thesis, and for giving me the opportunity to collaborate with him and
his student Joanes Lizarraga; I thank Rau¨l Vera because without his master classes on
Linux this Ph.D. would not be the same. I am also grateful to Alexander Feinstein and
´In˜igo L. Egusquiza for their assistance with my teaching duties and to Jesu´s Ib´an˜ez for
his help with my fellowship. Finally, my most sincere thanks to Vincenzo Salzano who
has been like an elder brother to me.
An special mention to Tom Broadhurst, Jose Maria Diego and Adi Zitrin who have
introduced me to the field of Gravitational Lensing and specially for their patience during
these last months, when I had no choice but to leave our collaborations aside for a while to
focus on writing up the present thesis.
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I am also grateful to the Astrophysics Department of the University of Oxford,
specially to Joseph Silk and Johanna Dunkley, for giving me the chance of visiting
them and for their help during and after my stay there. I would also like to mention my
collaborators: Luis. P. Chimento and Tristan L. Smith.
I thank the referees of this thesis, Roy Marteens and Jailson Alcaniz, for the careful
reading of the manuscript, and the members of the jury for accepting to come at the end of
July when everybody is thinking of summer holidays.
On the other hand, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Ph.D. comrades-
in-arms who have accompanied me along this adventure. In descending order of seniority I
would like to mention In˜igo Urizar, Giussepe Vitagliano, Carlos Meliveo, Borja Reina
and our last signings Kepa Sousa and Lluc Garc´ıa, for their comprehension in my moments
of rush, for encouraging me during the hard times, for the forced breaks, for our countless,
enjoyable and enlightening discussions and confessions and basically, for all the complicity.
I will miss our music lists, cierra la puerta, tengo algo que contar, our battles to open or
close the window and to decide where we should go for lunch. For all these and many
other things, thank you very much, you have became really good friends. At this point, I
would also like to name my colleagues Cristina Fern´andez, Sebastian P´erez and Daniel
Albornoz for our good times together in Oxford.
Tamb´e voldria agrair als majors “responsables” del meu inter`es en la f´ısica i la ci`encia:
els meus professors de l’institut: Ferran i Mila; i aquells que a trav´es del entusiasme pel seu
treball, augmentaren la meva curiositat i les ganes d’aprendre, i m’introdu¨ıren en el mo´n de la
investigacio´, els meus professors de la Universitat de Val`encia: Vicent Mart´ınez-Sancho,
Ramon Lapiedra, N´uria Rius, Toni Font, Joan Josep Ferrando, Miguel Portilla i Antonio
Morales entre d’altres.
I com no, no vull deixar d’agrair el suport incondicional de les meves amigues i els meus
amics, Rosa, M`onica, A`ngela, David i Sergi, que malgrat estar lluny, la nostra amistat
no s’ha perdut i sempre han estat al meu costat, tant els bons com no tan bons moments.
Finalment, vull donar les gr`acies a aquells que porten m´es temps aguantant-me i animant-
me en tot allo` que he fet, la meva fam´ılia: els meus avis, cosins, oncles, i al meu germ`a
Vicent, que ha demostrat tindre una paci`encia enorme amb mi. Ell sap ben b´e “lo pudenta”
que puc arribar a ser. I especialment, als meus pares, Vicent i Mari, que m’han donat
tota l’educacio´, suport i forc¸a necessaris per a arribar on so´c. I que sobretot, m’han transm`es
a trav´es del seu exemple, principis com l’esforc¸ i la const`ancia. A m´es, han sabut mostra-me
allo` que ´es important en cada moment. Es per aixo` i molt m´es els dedique aquesta tesi, s’ho
mereixen. I a tu Iker, que durant aquests 4 anys de tesis, has estat un pilar fonamental en
el que recolzar-me. Has estat al meu costat de manera incondicional, has rellegit els meus
treballs, m’has acompanyat all`a on fora i m’has animat en aquells moments que m´es ho he
necessitat, gr`acies.