Raúl Jiménez

Raúl Jiménez

Universitat de Barcelona

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Raúl Jiménez (Madrid, 1967) obtained his PhD at the Niels Bohr Institute in 1995, then moved to the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh were he held a PPARC Advanced Fellowship. He then went to the US where he joined the faculty of the Physics & Astronomy departments of Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania. He joined ICREA in Sept 2007. He was a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard in 2015-2016. Among his main contributions to our understanding of the Universe: the first evidence of dark energy from the ages of high redshift galaxies and globular clusters, the origin of dark galaxies, the first clue of how galaxies are assembled as a function of time, the first determination of the expansion history of the Universe, the role of cosmic explosions in the survival of exolife, the role of symmetries in the universe, a lower bound to the cosmological constant and a new model of the universe based on quantum information theory and gravity.


Research interests

I am a theoretical physicist interested in cosmology and astrophysics. My research ranges from the physics of stars to the early universe. The main objective of my research is to understand the fundamental laws of nature using cosmological and astronomical observations. Topics of research include: cosmological parameters, the age of the universe, stellar evolution, stellar populations, high-redshift galaxies, dark energy, the early universe, large scale structure, the cosmic microwave background, galaxy formation and evolution, and star formation. I am interested in analysing large datasets and the development of rigorous statistical algorithms. I have focussed on developing methods and techniques that are independent of the assumptions of the cosmology model to explore the fundamental laws of nature. I am active in science and public policy and have written on the role that Bayesian statistics, large data, machine and deep learning and robotization can have on our societies.

Selected publications

- Gomez C & Jimenez R 2020, 'How Gaussian can the sky be? Primordial non-Gaussianity from quantum information', Journal Of Cosmology And Astroparticle Physics, 7, 047.

- Moresco M, Jimenez R, Verde L, Cimatti A & Pozzetti L 2020, 'Setting the Stage for Cosmic Chronometers. II. Impact of Stellar Population Synthesis Models Systematics and Full Covariance Matrix', Astrophysical Journal, 898, 1, 82.

- Gomez C & Jimenez R 2020, 'Cosmology from quantum information', Physical Review D, 102, 6, 063511.

- Gomez C & Jimenez R 2020, 'Dark matter from primordial quantum information', Journal Of Cosmology And Astroparticle Physics, 10, 004.

- Jimenez R & Heavens AF 2020, 'The distribution of dark galaxies and spin bias', Monthly Notices Of The Royal Astronomical Society, 498, 1, L93 - L97.

- Jimenez R, Jorgensen UG & Verde L 2020, 'Giants eating giants: mass loss and giant planets modifying the luminosity of the tip of the giant branch', Journal Of Cosmology And Astroparticle Physics, 10, 027.

- Valcin D, Bernal J, Jimenez R, Verde L & Wandelt B 2020, 'Inferring the age of the universe with globular clusters', JCAP, 12, 002.

- Rida Khalifeh A,  Bellomo N,  Bernal JL & Jimenez R 2020, 'Can Dark Matter be Geometry? A Case Study with Mimetic Dark Matter', Physics of the Dark Universe, Volume 30, 100646

Selected research activities

After the publication of my book "Robotized Democracies" I have become very active in science and public policy. In particular, I have writen extensively on how Bayesian statistics, large data mining, machine and deep learning and robotization will have on society and how they can transform profundly our democracies. I am an analyst for Agenda Publica El Pais and I have been interviewed by national TVs.