"The Era of Precision Cosmology with Voids"

Abstract:

When observing the Universe on the largest scales, a significant fraction of its volume is dominated by nearly empty space. Alongside the luminous filamentary structures, there exist vast underdense regions known as cosmic voids. Despite being almost devoid of matter, voids contain crucial information about the underlying cosmological framework.
In this talk, I will provide an overview of the use of cosmic voids in cosmology. I will introduce the main observables employed in void science and review the most important results obtained from their application to galaxy survey catalogs. I will then focus on the analysis of the void size function, the main topic of my research. I will highlight the most recent theoretical developments, along with the resulting cosmological constraints and forecasts. These include key case studies based on BOSS catalogs and expected Euclid data, as well as tests of alternative cosmological models, particularly in the context of upcoming Stage V surveys such as the Wide-Field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST).