Research

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Astronomy & Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick working on exoplanets in the Neptune desert with Dr David Armstrong’s group.

Before that, I worked with Dr Heather Cegla’s research group Towards Other Earths. I studied the alignment between the planetary orbit and the stellar spin of a set of planets in the Neptunian desert. To do that, I made use of the Rossiter-McLaughlin distortion observed in spectroscopic observations during a planetary transit, which is sensitive to the spin-orbit angle of the system. Additionally, I also studied the variability of the star behind the transit chord through the “reloaded” Rossiter-McLaughlin approach, which isolates the stellar light behind the planet as it transits.

Also at Warwick, in collaboration with Dr Matteo Brogi, I worked on the characterisation of the atmosphere of the bloated super-Neptune WASP-166 b. I focused on applying the cross-correlation method to simultaneously study the presence of water and clouds in the planetary atmosphere using high-resolution, optical observations of the instrument ESPRESSO. I also improved a principal component analysis technique to mitigate the effect of telluric lines in the observed spectra.

Previously, I completed my PhD under the supervision of Dr Ignasi Ribas at the Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (IEEC, CSIC) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, working on the exploitation of high resolution spectra of M dwarf stars obtained with the CARMENES instrument. I led the development and application the cross-correlation technique for CARMENES GTO observations. This work resulted in an open source pipeline (raccoon) to build weighted binary masks, compute cross-correlation functions, and derive radial velocities and stellar variability indicators. I also studied the effects of stellar variability in M dwarf high-resolution spectra using CARMENES data. In particular, I analysed the temporal behaviour of several spectroscopic proxies of stellar activity in a range of M dwarfs of different mass and activity level. I also performed line-by-line studies in a set of active M dwarf stars observed with CARMENES, and a set of earlier cool dwarfs as part of the EXPRES Stellar Signals Project.