Theresa Baker Portrait

Professor Tessa Baker

Professor

Tessa.Baker@port.ac.uk

View my research outputs

Summary

I'm a cosmologist, working with both gravitational waves and electromagnetic observations to probe the fundamental laws of our universe. Much of my research centres around testing the laws of gravity that govern the largest cosmological scales, as a route to understanding the apparent dark sectors of our universe (dark energy, potentially dark matter). 

Research interests

Here are some of the key focus areas of my current research program:

  • Development of bright and dark gravitational wave sirens methods. These are two of leading methods we can extract cosmological parameters and test large-scale gravitational laws with gravitational waves.
  • Novel techniques to complete galaxy catalogues. Galaxy surveys are a key ingredient of the dark sirens technique mentioned above, but they miss lots of faint galaxies. Reconstructing these `invisible' galaxies allows us to maximise the cosmology we can do with gravitational wave detections.
  • Cosmological simulations in theories of gravity beyond GR. Simulations are essential for modelling the smaller (nonlinear) scales of the cosmic web. However, these simulations are only available in General Relativity and a handful of other well-studied models. My group is developing a new, flexible simulation code called Hi-COLA which can evolve the universe under a much broader set of gravity models.
  • Gravitational wave astronomy is still a relatively new field. I'm particularly interested in understanding how to best combine these new observations with `traditional' electromagnetic surveys. Since the two kinds of data contain complementary information, we can maximise our cosmological results by jointly inferring constraints from both sets simultaneously. 

I carry out some of the above research in collaboration with major telescopes and gravitational wave facilities. I am a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, LISA, the Vera Rubin Observatory and Euclid.

Research outputs

2025

Colangeli, E., Leyde, K., Baker, T.

23 May 2025, In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2025, 5, 32p., 078

Research output: Article

Smith, G. P., Baker, T., Birrer, S., Collins, C. E., Ezquiaga, J. M., Goyal, S., Hannuksela, O. A., Hemanta, P., Hendry, M. A., Janquart, J., Keitel, D., Levan, A. J., Lo, R. K. L., More, A., Nicholl, M., Pastor-Marazuela, I., Ponte Pérez, A. I., Ubach, H., Uronen, L. E., Wright, M., Zumalacarregui, M., Bianco, F., Çalişkan, M., Chan, J. C. L., Colangeli, E., Gompertz, B. P., Haines, C. P., Hayes, E. E., Hu, B., Lamb, G. P., Liu, A., Mandhai, S., Narola, H., Nguyen, Q. L., Poon, J. S. C., Ryczanowski, D., Seo, E., Shajib, A. J., Shan, X., Tanvir, N., Vujeva, L.

1 May 2025, In: Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences. 383, 2295, p. 1-63, 63p., 20240134

Research output: Article

Zazzera, S., Fonseca, J., Baker, T., Clarkson, C.

4 Feb 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 537, 2, p. 1912-1923, 12p.

Research output: Article

2024

Zazzera, S., Fonseca, J., Baker, T., Clarkson, C.

20 May 2024, In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2024, 05, 31p., 095

Research output: Article

Chen, A., Gray, R., Baker, T.

22 Feb 2024, In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2024, 02, 33p., 035

Research output: Article

Dalang, C., Baker, T.

21 Feb 2024, In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2024, 2, 31p., 024

Research output: Article

2023

Fiorini, B., Koyama, K., Baker, T.

22 Dec 2023, In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2023, 12, 26p., 045

Research output: Article

Gray, R., Beirnaert, F., Karathanasis, C., Revenu, B., Turski, C., Chen, A., Baker, T., Vallejo, S., Romano, A. E., Ghosh, T., Ghosh, A., Leyde, K., Mastrogiovanni, S., More, S.

12 Dec 2023, In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2023, 12, 35p., 023

Research output: Article

Auclair, P., Bacon, D., Baker, T., Barreiro, T., Bartolo, N., Belgacem, E., Bellomo, N., Ben-Dayan, I., Bertacca, D., Besancon, M., Blanco-Pillado, J. J., Blas, D., Boileau, G., Calcagni, G., Caldwell, R., Caprini, C., Carbone, C., Chang, C., Chen, H., Christensen, N., Clesse, S., Comelli, D., Congedo, G., Contaldi, C., Crisostomi, M., Croon, D., Cui, Y., Cusin, G., Cutting, D., Dalang, C., Luca, V. D., Pozzo, W. D., Desjacques, V., Dimastrogiovanni, E., Dorsch, G. C., Ezquiaga, J. M., Fasiello, M., Figueroa, D. G., Flauger, R., Franciolini, G., Frusciante, N., Fumagalli, J., Garcia-Bellido, J., Gould, O., Holz, D., Iacconi, L., Jain, R. K., Jenkins, A. C., Jinno, R., Joana, C., Karnesis, N., Konstandin, T., Koyama, K., Kozaczuk, J., Kuroyanagi, S., Laghi, D., Lewicki, M., Lombriser, L., Madge, E., Maggiore, M., Malhotra, A., Mancarella, M., Mandic, V., Mangiagli, A., Matarrese, S., Mazumdar, A., Mukherjee, S., Musco, I., Nardini, G., No, J. M., Papanikolaou, T., Peloso, M., Pieroni, M., Pilo, L., Raccanelli, A., Renaux-Petel, S., Renzini, A. I., Ricciardone, A., Riotto, A., Romano, J. D., Rollo, R., Pol, A. R., Morales, E. R., Sakellariadou, M., Saltas, I. D., Scalisi, M., Schmitz, K., Schwaller, P., Sergijenko, O., Servant, G., Simakachorn, P., Sorbo, L., Sousa, L., Speri, L., Steer, D. A., Tamanini, N., Tasinato, G., Torrado, J., Unal, C., Vennin, V., Vernieri, D., Vernizzi, F., Volonteri, M., Wachter, J. M., Wands, D., Witkowski, L. T., Zumalacárregui, M., Annis, J., Ares, F. R., Avelino, P. P., Avgoustidis, A., Barausse, E., Bonilla, A., Bonvin, C., Bosso, P., Calabrese, M., Çalışkan, M., Cembranos, J. A. R., Chala, M., Chernoff, D., Clough, K., Criswell, A., Das, S., Silva, A. d., Dayal, P., Domcke, V., Durrer, R., Easther, R., Escoffier, S., Ferrans, S., Fryer, C., Gair, J., Gordon, C., Hendry, M., Hindmarsh, M., Hooper, D. C., Kajfasz, E., Kopp, J., Koushiappas, S. M., Kumar, U., Kunz, M., Lagos, M., Lilley, M., Lizarraga, J., Lobo, F. S. N., Maleknejad, A., Martins, C. J. A. P., Meerburg, P. D., Meyer, R., Mimoso, J. P., Nesseris, S., Nunes, N., Oikonomou, V., Orlando, G., Özsoy, O., Pacucci, F., Palmese, A., Petiteau, A., Pinol, L., Zwart, S. P., Pratten, G., Prokopec, T., Quenby, J., Rastgoo, S., Roest, D., Rummukainen, K., Schimd, C., Secroun, A., Sopuerta, C. F., Tereno, I., Tolley, A., Urrestilla, J., Vagenas, E. C., Vis, J. v. d., Weygaert, R. v. d., Wardell, B., Weir, D. J., Świeżewska, B., Zhdanov, V. I.

23 Aug 2023, In: Living Reviews in Relativity. 26, 5, 254p., 5

Research output: Article

Fonseca, J., Zazzera, S., Baker, T., Clarkson, C.

18 Aug 2023, In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2023, 08, 35p., 050

Research output: Article