Cosmology X Data Science

The Cosmology X Data Science group develops novel algorithms and ways of thinking to apply to datasets to answer fundamental questions about the cosmos.

Astronomy is entering a new era. With ground- and space-based telescopes equipped with increasingly more sensitive cameras and instruments, enabling surveys, such as Kepler, Gaia and DES, SDSS, DESI, LSST, Euclid and WFIRST, that are discovering thousands of planets and millions of stars and galaxies, we are able to seek answers to fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the universe. Cosmology X Data Science is a group that looks into all these datasets, develop new methods and ideas to answer fundamental questions of our cosmos.

Research Highlights

June 14, 2022

Simple lessons from complex learning: what a neural network model learns about cosmic structure formation

D. Jamieson, Y. Li, S. He, F. Villaescusa-Navarro, S. Ho, R. Alves de Oliveira, D. Spergel

We train a neural network model to predict the full phase space evolution of cosmological N-body simulations. Its success implies…

arXiv:2206.04573

June 9, 2022

Field Level Neural Network Emulator for Cosmological N-body Simulations

D. Jamieson, Y. Li, R. Alves de Oliveira, F. Villaescusa-Navarro, S. Ho, D. Spergel

We build a field level emulator for cosmic structure formation that is accurate in the nonlinear regime. Our emulator consists…

arXiv:2206.04594

June 3, 2022

Cosmological Information in the Marked Power Spectrum of the Galaxy Field

E. Massara, F. Villaescusa-Navarro, CH. Hahn, M. M. Abidi, M. Eickenberg, S. Ho, P. Lemos, A. M. Dizgah, B. Régaldo-Saint Blancard

Marked power spectra are two-point statistics of a marked field obtained by weighting each location with a function that depends…

arXiv:2206.01709

News & Announcements

At first glance, this image is dominated by the vibrant glow of the swirling spiral to the lower left of the frame. However, this galaxy is far from the most interesting spectacle here — behind it sits a galaxy cluster. Galaxies are not randomly distributed in space; they swarm together, gathered up by the unyielding hand of gravity, to form groups and clusters. The Milky Way is a member of the Local Group, which is part of the Virgo Cluster, which in turn is part of the 100 000-galaxy-strong Laniakea Supercluster. The galaxy cluster seen in this image is known as SDSS J0333+0651. Clusters such as this can help astronomers understand the distant — and therefore early — Universe. SDSS J0333+0651 was imaged as part of a study of star formation in far-flung galaxies. Star-forming regions are typically not very large, stretching out for a few hundred light-years at most, so it is difficult for telescopes to resolve them at a distance. Even using its most sensitive and highest-resolution cameras, Hubble cannot resolve very distant star-forming regions, so astronomers use a cosmic trick: they search instead for galaxy clusters, which have a gravitational influence so immense that they warp the spacetime around them. This distortion acts like a lens, magnifying the light of galaxies sitting far behind the cluster and producing elongated arcs like the one seen to the left of centre in this image.

Artificial Intelligence Discovers Secret Equation for ‘Weighing’ Galaxy Clusters

Colin Hill and Oliver Philcox Among Winners of Buchalter Cosmology Prize

Cosmologist J. Colin Hill Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship

Leadership

Shirley Ho, Ph.D.

Group Leader, Cosmology X Data Science

Shirley Ho joined the foundation in 2018 as leader of the Cosmology X Data Science group at CCA. Her research interests have ranged from fundamental cosmological measurements to exoplanet statistics to using machine learning to estimate how much dark matter is in the universe.

Alice Pisani, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist, Cosmology X Data

Alice Pisani is an Associate Research Scientist in the Cosmology X Data Science group at CCA, with a joint position at Cooper Union.

Ken Van Tilburg, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist, Cosmology X Data Science

Ken Van Tilburg is an Associate Research Scientist in the Center for Computational Astrophysics with the Cosmology X Data Science Group. Ken earned his B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from MIT and his PhD. in Physics from Stanford University.

Simone Aiola, Ph.D.

Data and Pipeline Project Leader, Cosmology X Data Science/Simons Observatory

Simone Aiola joined the CCA at the end of 2018 as the Data & Pipeline Project Leader for the Simons Observatory (SO). He is also an active member of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) collaboration.

William Coulton, Ph.D.

Flatiron Research Fellow, Cosmology X Data Science

William Coulton is a Flatiron Research Fellow in the Cosmology X Data Science Group. He joined the Flatiron Institute in April, 2021

Matthew Hasselfield, Ph.D.

Data Scientist, Cosmology X Data Science/Simons Observatory

Matthew Hasselfield joined CCA as a Data Scientist for the Simons Observatory.

Alba Kalaja

University of Groningen (RUG)
Predoctoral Researcher, CCA (2022)

Alba is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Groningen (RUG), the Netherlands, where she works with P. D. (Daan) Meerburg on primordial and secondary non-Gaussianity in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).

Fiona McCarthy, Ph.D.

Flatiron Research Fellow, Cosmology X Data Science

Fiona McCarthy joins is a Flatiron Research Fellow in the Center for Computational Astrophysics.

Chirag Modi, Ph.D.

Flatiron Research Fellow, Cosmology X Data Science, CCA joint with CCM

Chirag Modi joined the Flatiron Institute as a Flatiron Research Fellow in October, 2020.

Alice Pisani, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist, Cosmology X Data

Alice Pisani is an Associate Research Scientist in the Cosmology X Data Science group at CCA, with a joint position at Cooper Union.

Cyril Creque Sarbinowski, Ph.D.

Flatiron Research Fellow, Cosmology X Data Science

Cyril obtained his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University working with Marc Kamionkowski. His work uses theoretical and statistical tools to investigate the nature of a variety of topics within cosmology, astrophysics, and astronomy.

Ben Wandelt, Ph.D.

International Chair of Theoretical Cosmology, Sorbonne University and the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris

Professor Benjamin Wandelt received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Imperial College, London. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Theoretical Astrophysics Center in Copenhagen from 1997 to 1999, as a research associate at the Department of Physics, Princeton University, from 1999 to 2001.

Mariangela Lisanti, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist, Cosmology X Data Science

Mariangela Lisanti is an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Computational Astrophysics. She graduated with a B.A. from Harvard in 2005 and received her PhD from Stanford in 2010.