Ph.D. in Astrophysics

Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo

Advised by Prof Eduardo S. Cypriano

​Nov/2011 - Oct/2016

According to the hierarchical scenario, galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound structures in the Universe, formed through the merger of smaller subclusters along cosmic filaments. These mergers are the most energetic events since the Big Bang and offer a unique laboratory to study the three main components of clusters: dark matter, intra-cluster gas, and galaxies. In my PhD thesis, I studied three merging systems—Abell 1758, Abell 2034, and Abell 3376—whose collisions occur close to the plane of the sky. Using optical imaging and spectroscopy, I applied weak lensing to map mass distributions and derived dynamical properties such as velocity dispersions and line-of-sight separations. These data allowed us to estimate individual cluster masses and characterize their merger stages through two-body dynamical modeling. We also assessed the impact of merging on galaxy velocity dispersions and placed (albeit weak) upper limits on the dark matter self-interaction cross-section.

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M.Sc. in Astrophysics

Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo

Advised by Prof Eduardo S. Cypriano

​Mar/2009 - Sep/2011

We investigated two galaxy clusters, Abell 1758 (z = 0.28) and Abell 2034 (z = 0.11), with strong observational evidence of recent mergers between substructures. Our goal was to reconstruct the mass distribution, dominated by dark matter, and compare it with the galaxy distribution and intra-cluster gas traced by X-ray emission. We performed data reduction, calibration, and photometric analysis of Subaru multi-band (B, R, z′) imaging, and used weak lensing to map the mass. Our results revealed spatial offsets between dark matter and gas, particularly in the northern structure of A2034 and in A1758N, suggesting ongoing interactions akin to those seen in the Bullet Cluster.

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B.Sc. in Physics

Institute of Physics at the University of São Paulo

Feb/2002 - Aug/2008