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David Rapetti

Senior Scientist

Contents

Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center/USRA

Email: david.rapetti@nasa.gov

Phone: 650-604-2458

Professional Biography

During my doctorate and positions at KIPAC, DARK, and LMU, I accumulated extensive research experience building and utilizing rigorous Bayesian inference analyses to constrain astrophysical and cosmological parameters from various observational probes and objects, such as the cosmic microwave background and in particular galaxy clusters. Based on this expertise, as NPP Senior Fellow (CU/Ames), I also began leading the development of a comprehensive pipeline to robustly separate signal and systematics. As Scientist at USRA, I also continued with this research. A specific goal of the pipeline is to extract the sky-averaged signal of the spin-flip hyperfine line of neutral Hydrogen from the end of the Dark Ages and during Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization. For this, the pipeline is to be applied to low radio frequency observations from ground, space, and lunar-based experiments. The methodologies, statistical and pattern recognition techniques, interdisciplinary applications, and systematics and signal studies being investigated are integral parts of this work. In collaboration with researchers at NASA Ames, I also started to investigate the comparison of systematics corrections for light curves from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Education

2006 Doctorate awarded (with highest grade & honors)

          University of Barcelona, Department of Astronomy and Meteorology

2003-2005 Two times EARA Marie Curie Fellow (for a total of 1 yr)

          University of Cambridge, Institute of Astronomy

1997 Licentiate in Physics

          Autonomous University of Barcelona

Research Interests

  • Observational and theoretical cosmology: dark energy, dark matter, modified gravity, inflation, neutrinos, etc.
  • Cosmological probes: 21-cm global signal, galaxy cluster mass function, cluster gas-mass fraction, cosmic microwave background, supernovae, clustering of galaxies and clusters, baryon acoustic oscillations, etc.
  • Time series light curves: systematics, exoplanets, stellar variability, etc.
  • Cluster astrophysics/observable-mass scaling relations
  • First stars, galaxies, and black holes
  • Bayesian statistics and inference
  • Pattern recognition and machine learning in astrophysics and cosmology

Select Publications

“Constraining a Model of the Radio Sky Below 6 MHz Using the Parker Solar Probe/FIELDS Instrument in Preparation for Upcoming Lunar-based Experiments”. Bassett N., Rapetti D., Nhan B.D., Page B., Burns J.O., Pulupa M., Bale S.D., 2023, ApJ, 945, 134.

“Constraining Warm Dark Matter and Population III Stars with the Global 21 cm Signal”. Hibbard J.J., Mirocha J., Rapetti D., Bassett N., Burns J.O., Tauscher K., 2022, ApJ 929, 151.

“Formulating and critically examining the assumptions of global 21-cm signal analyses: How to avoid the false troughs that can appear in single spectrum fits”. Tauscher K., Rapetti D., Burns J.O., 2020, ApJ, 897, 132.

“Global 21-cm Signal Extraction from Foreground and Instrumental Effects II: Efficient and Self-Consistent Technique for Constraining Nonlinear Signal Models”. Rapetti D., Tauscher K., Mirocha J., Burns J.O., 2020, ApJ, 897, 174.

“The Observed Growth of Massive Galaxy Clusters III: Testing General Relativity on Cosmological Scales”. Rapetti D., Allen S.W., Mantz A., Ebeling H., 2010, MNRAS, 406, 1796.

ADS link; ArXiv link; Google Scholar link

Select Accepted Proposals

Currently as PI:

  • NASA Astrophysics Research and Analysis (80NSSC23K0013): “Modeling and Analyzing Low Radio Frequency Observations from the Lunar Surface in Pursuit of the Dark Ages”
  • NASA TESS Guest Investigator (80NSSC23K0439): “Flexible Toolkit To Compare Detrending Approaches On Large Samples Of TESS Light Curves”

NASA Missions

Currently actively involved in:

Manifested NASA CLPS payloads:

  • Radiowave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES)
  • Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE-Night)

SMD Mission:

  • Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), via the SPOC pipeline team

Awards & Others

2016-2019  NPP Senior Fellowship at CU Boulder/NASA Ames

2010-2015  DARK Fellowship at the University of Copenhagen

2003-2005  Two EARA Marie Curie Fellowships (for a total of 1yr) at IoA (Cambridge, UK)