Xiaosheng Huang

My research interests are in observational cosmology. Fourteen years after the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe (Nobel Prize 2011), a standard model of the universe (and its variations) has been established but fundamental questions about the nature of dark energy remain unanswered. Along with collaborators in the Supernova Cosmology Project led by Saul Perlmutter at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, I am working on the following projects and would like to engage undergraduate students as researchers in cutting edge problems of observational cosmology.

I. High Redshift (Faraway) Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia)

The observation of these objects allows an empirical determination of the time variability of the properties of dark energy.

II. Nearby SNe Ia

Nearby SNe Ia in the Hubble flow contribute significantly to reduce statistical error on the cosmological parameters by anchoring the nearby Hubble diagram.

III. Gravitational Lensing

The observation and modeling of gravitational lensing can correct for the magnification of SNe Ia due to lensing and make possible time delay measurements, a cosmological probe independent of SNe Ia.