The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

Support Our Science

Julian B Muñoz

Center for Astrophysics

Julian B Muñoz

julian.munoz_bermejo@cfa.harvard.edu

About

I’m a theoretical astrophysicist broadly interested in cosmology and particle physics. I finished my undergrad at UCM in Madrid in 2013 and got my PhD from JHU in 2017. I was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Physics afterwards, and enjoy being a Clay fellow at the CfA now. My work is at the interface of particle physics and astrophysics. I focus on unearthing the nature of dark matter and dark energy, as well as searching for signatures of new physics—such as neutrino masses—using cosmological data sets. I am also keenly interested in the formation of the first galaxies during cosmic dawn and reionization, both as novel probes of our cosmos and to understand the astrophysics of the early universe.

PhD in Physics and Astronomy, JHU 2017

Telescopes and Instruments

South Pole Telescope, Antarctica

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a submillimeter observatory in Antarctica that performs measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the dark energy driving the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. The observatory is also part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a globe-spanning multi-telescope project that captured the first image of a black hole at the center of a nearby galaxy. The SPT project is a collaboration between the University of Chicago, the University of California at Berkeley, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Illinois, and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

Visit the South Pole Telescope, Antarctica Website

BICEP

The first moments after the Big Bang are literally hidden from us: the entire cosmos was too hot and dense for any light to pierce. However, signs of what happened then could be imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB), a cold sea of light filling the modern universe. The BICEP Program is an international collaboration looking for those signs using telescopes at the South Pole. Researchers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian play a leading role in this project, which could provide the first discovery of gravitational waves produced when the universe was just a fraction of a second old.

Visit the BICEP Website

SPHEREx

Clues about the origin of the universe and of life are scattered across the sky. SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) is a next-generation space observatory designed to measure the infrared spectrum of 450 million galaxies and millions of stars in the Milky Way. With these spectra, SPHEREx will answer pressing questions about the history and origin of the universe, and reveal the abundance of water and other molecules associated with life in the Milky Way in unprecedented detail. Researchers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian are involved in the design of the program to look for the interstellar molecules necessary for life as we know it. SPHEREx is targeted to launch in 2023.

Visit the SPHEREx Website

Large Aperture Experiment to Explore the Dark Ages (LEDA)

At some point early in the history of the universe, the first stars were born. However, we don’t know exactly when that was, or what the first generation of stars looked like. The Large Aperture Experiment to Explore the Dark Ages (LEDA) is an observatory designed to solve these mysteries, by looking for light from hydrogen gas when the universe was only about 1% of its current age, to find signs of the earliest stars and black holes. LEDA consists of 512 antennas tuned to the wavelength of radio light emitted by cold hydrogen atoms. These antennas are in two clusters located in California and New Mexico.

Visit the LEDA Website