Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos | Daniel LaRocca

Daniel LaRocca - Postdoctoral Scholar - Postdoc

Office: -- NONE

Address: 525 Davey Laboratory University Park, PA 16802 US

Email: dml6156@psu.edu

Phone: +1 847 284 4998

–

Publications

Jesse Bluem, Philip Kaaret, William Fuelberth, Anna Zajczyk, Daniel LaRocca, R. Ringuette, Keith Jahoda, K. Kuntz, "A HaloSat Analysis of the Cygnus Superbubble." Astrophys. J. 905 2 (2020)

Joseph Colosimo, Abraham Falcone, Mitchell Wages, Samuel Hull, David Burrows, Mitchell Range, Fredric Hancock, Cole Armstrong, Gooderham McCormick, Daniel LaRocca, "Measuring the Quantum Efficiency of X-Ray Hybrid CMOS Detectors." (2021)

P. Kaaret, others, "HaloSat: A CubeSat to Study the Hot Galactic Halo." Astrophys. J. 884 2 (2019)

E. Silich, K. Jahoda, L. Angelini, P. Kaaret, A. Zajczyk, D. LaRocca, R. Ringuette, J. Richardson, "A Search for the 3.5 keV Line from the Milky Way’s Dark Matter Halo with HaloSat." Astrophys. J. 916 1 (2021)

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez, while she was a graduate student at the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC). Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work includes specialized topics in general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds. In particular, her thesis work focused on finding effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams, and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope and variety of research at the IGC. The base of the image represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity. These are among the approaches to fundamental questions studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle of the image represents the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology by galaxies embedded in a smooth surface, characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the much larger physical scales studied in cosmology. Finally, at the top, the surface curves to an extreme, representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet. These elements depict an active galactic nucleus, inspired by Centaurus A. Just to the right, a pair of black holes approaches merger. This top portion of the wordmark represents the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics, which specializes in the study of high-energy phenomena in the universe.