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diff --git a/src/projects/index.html b/src/projects/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..994795b --- /dev/null +++ b/src/projects/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"/> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"/> + <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.svg"/> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/default.css"/> + <title>Matthijs van der Wild</title> + </head> + <body> + <main> + <article> + <h1>Matthijs van der Wild</h1> + <h2>Projects</h2> + + <h3>Automated image processing with <abbr title="Low-Frequency Array">LOFAR</abbr> data</h3> + <p> + My current activities include the implementation and improvement of an automated data reduction pipeline for radio data, enabling high-resolution very-long baseline interferometry (<abbr title="Very-long baseline interferometry">VLBI</abbr>). + The International LOw-Frequency ARray (<abbr title="Low-Frequenc Array">LOFAR</abbr>) Telescope is an interferometer which has radio stations placed across Europe. + It provides a wealth of data which enables the detection and imaging of radio sources with high sensitivity and great detail. + The calibration of the individual radio stations, however, is technically challenging. + As a result, the full <abbr title="Low-Frequency Array">LOFAR</abbr> telescope is still underutilised. + My pipeline addresses this with the development of tools that do not rely on human input, and which produce reliable and reproducible results on platforms that are accessible to astronomers. + It extends the resolving power of <abbr title="Low-Frequency Array">LOFAR</abbr> from the Dutch stations to the full international array, delivering sub-arcsecond resolution imaging in a way that is scalable, portable and reproducible. + </p> + + <h3>Inflation and quantum geometrodynamics in scalar-tensor theories</h3> + <p> + I have investigated the behaviour of a general class of scalar-tensor theories of gravity when effects from quantum gravity are relevant. + One such extension adds a scalar degree of freedom to the gravitational interaction, which is then called a scalar-tensor theory. + Scalar-tensor theories are an extension to the theory of general relativity which add a scalar degree of freedom to the metric tensor to describe the gravitational interaction. + Such extensions can be motivated from cosmology, where the energy of the additional field can drive cosmic inflation, and particle physics, where the Standard Model supplies a natural candidate scalar degree of freedom through the Higgs field. + I have developed a method to systematically expand the full quantum dynamics of these models around solutions to the classical equations of motion, and how these classical solutions provide a background on which the quantum gravitational perturbations propagate. + </p> + <p> + I have applied this strategy to inflationary cosmology. + In this setup, the gravitational scalar field fulfills the role of the inflaton. + I have determined observational signatures from both slow-roll inflation and quantum gravitational corrections in the primordial power spectrum, and have made predictions on the parameters of the models in the event that sufficiently precise data is available. + This would allow an entire class of cosmological models to be ruled out if the structure of these signatures is absent from the data. + </p> + + <p> + More information about this can be found in <a href="https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/151229">my thesis</a>. + </p> + </article> + </main> + <footer> + © 2020 Matthijs van der Wild + </footer> + </body> +</html> |