Carlo Tasillo

8 March 2023

Photo: Carlo Tasillo

Carlo Tasillo grew up in Dortmund, Germany. He did his Master at RWTH Aachen and Università degli Studi di Perugia in Italy. In his thesis "Listening to hot dark sector phase transitions", he investigated the possibility that there has been a phase transition in the yet unobserved very early Universe, a phenomenon quite similar to water boiling in a pot on a stove. He joined Quantum Universe as PhD student in the DESY Theory group.

What is the topic of your research?

I’m continuing my work on dark sector phase transitions together with my PhD supervisor Kai Schmidt-Hoberg and Thomas Konstandin the DESY Theory group. My research group is actually larger and also includes colleagues in Oslo, Aachen, Karlsruhe and Heidelberg. We are all inspired by the idea of investigating the unexplored “dark side” of our Universe by using gravitational waves as a new pair of eyes. Equipped with these, we hope to look into the distant regions of our cosmos which would otherwise be invisible for us. One current theme of our research is to understand whether so-called pulsar timing arrays all around the globe might have already detected a sign for a dark sector phase transition.

What fascinates you about your research focus?

It may sound cheesy, but as a teenager I once stumbled upon the KworkQuark website, which back then started my fascination for particle physics. Check it out, it’s still online! That was my very first encounter with DESY. Now, my office is here and I can actually contribute to what we know about nature. How cool is that? A younger version of myself couldn’t be more impressed. Coincidentally, as a species we also basically just began to explore the early Universe, because we invented the necessary tools only recently. I feel deeply privileged to belong to the small group of people who live in that one incredible region of space-time, where we can allow ourselves as a society to actually measure what has been going on in the first moments of this beautiful Universe. If you ask me what fascinates me: it is precisely this humbling experience.

What do you like about the cluster Quantum Universe?

One thing concerning the cluster I am particularly fond of is when after a long and tiring day of discussions about all the cutting-edge research at a QU day, one sits in small groups and realizes how the people around have all kinds of different backgrounds and still all burn for the same common cause. Doing a PhD on your own is nice for a day, because you can take the time to really focus on even so small details – meeting a group of inspiring fellow researchers every now and then is however equally fruitful and motivating, especially whenever you lose the sense for the bigger picture by spending too much time in your own small field of expertise.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I’m a passionate musician, be it at concerts, at home where my piano waits for me, or at work in the office where you can usually find me half-sitting and half-headbanging with headphones on. Apart from that, I also enjoy bouldering, cycling and learning as many new skills as possible. Lately, I got a lot into trying to brew decent espresso at home – a very rewarding hobby.