Fundamental physics from the large-scale structure of the Universe

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What happened in the first second after the Big Bang? Why is the expansion of the Universe accelerating? And what is dark energy?Our Universe still holds many mysteries, from its earliest beginnings to its current accelerated expansion. While studying the origin and evolution of our Universe is exciting by itself, what especially drives me is the link of cosmology to fundamental physical theories. The Universe is the largest laboratory we have to push our understanding of the laws of physics!While the physics of the early Universe and the underlying cause of dark energy remains puzzling, what is certain is that we can study both through the clustering of galaxies in our Universe. My research focuses on analysing the large scale structure of galaxies in our Universe to uncover the underlying nature of dark energy and determine the physical theory that drives the expansion of the Universe milli-seconds after the Big Bang.The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is designed to tackle these questions: after more than a decade of development, DESI achieved first light in 2019. This year DESI began its 5-year survey mapping the 3D positions of tens of millions of galaxies across almost half the sky. I joined DESI during my PhD and am excited to see the project evolve from being a mere proposal to finally start my research with its first year of data that will have pivotal impact on cosmology and our understanding of fundamental physics.