The Polocalc (POLarisation Orientation CALibrator for Cosmology) project, led by Federico Nati, Professor of Experimental Cosmology at the Department of Physics of the University of Milano-Bicocca, has just been awarded a €2.4 million ERC Advanced Grant by the European Union. Over the next five years, drones and balloons will be flown over the Atacama Desert in Chile at an altitude of almost 6,000 metres to create a constellation of calibration light sources that will provide an absolute reference system for the Simons Observatory telescopes. This innovative method will make it possible to discover never-before-observed phenomena such as gravitational waves in the early universe, unravelling some of the mysteries surrounding the birth of the cosmos and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
At Polocalc, 6-7 researchers, research fellows and PhD students from Milano-Bicocca will work under the direction of Federico Nati.
ERC Advanced Grants are awarded by the European Research Council to established researchers who are recognised leaders in their field and have an excellent, particularly visionary and innovative research project. This is the first ERC Advanced Grant to be hosted directly at Milano-Bicocca.