Dr. Constantinos Skordis

My primary field of research is cosmology and gravitation. I am particularly interested in the role gravity plays at various scales: from the smallest laboratory scales to those of the whole Universe. I have worked and published on the physics behind the observed cosmic acceleration using theoretical models based on scalar fields, commonly called dark energy. In my work, I frequently use numerical techniques and Bayesian inference to test theoretical and phenomenological models with data and write codes to compute observables such as the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background and large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe. I have constructed parametrized cosmological tests of gravity with my collaborators at Oxford University and published a widely used survey of theories and gravitational systems linking tests of gravity on small scales with cosmology. In the last few years, I have written several papers on probing the nature of dark matter, determining its properties on cosmological scales and its possible couplings with dark energy fields. Most of my recent research interests have been in constructing extensions of general relativity to account for cosmic acceleration or as an alternative to the otherwise implied missing mass in the Universe. In our 2021 PRL article with Tom Zlosnik, we were the first to show that it is possible to extend general relativity to simultaneously interpret the dynamics of individual galaxies and fit cosmic microwave background spectra without particle dark matter.

Besides my specialisms - cosmology and gravity, I am also interested in links with particle and quantum field theory, effective field theory, statistical physics and kinetic theory, astrophysics and hydrodynamics. I am particularly keen in investigating new tools for cosmology based on forward Bayesian modelling and deep learning. I welcome projects from interested researchers under any of these broadly defined areas.
 
I work at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.