Project:	Studying the Large Scale Structure of the Early Universe with Euclid
Disciplines:	Astronomy, Astrophysics
Mentor:	Ranga Ram Chary, Dr., (PMA), rchary@caltech.edu, Phone: 6263952693
Mentor URL:	https://www.its.caltech.edu/~rchary/  (opens in new window)
Background:	Studying the formation and growth of large scale structure at early cosmic times can provide clues about the initial physical conditions of the Universe. The sensitivity and wide-area coverage of the recently launched space mission, Euclid, allows one to trace the formation of these structures. The project will involve cross-calibrating the Euclid data with external ground-based datasets and using the spectral energy distributions of galaxies to assess if any of the observations completed thus far could harbor evidence of a over density of galaxies in the distant Universe.
Description:	The goals will be: 1. To understand the properties of the different datasets, how the data were taken, the advantages and disadvantages of the different observing approaches. 2. Measuring the brightness of objects in Subaru, PanSTARRS and Euclid data in those fields. 3. Using the multi wavelength information to measure the distances to galaxies using photometric redshift fitting 4. Assess the evidence for an over density at any particular redshift compared to the field galaxy distribution. Over the 10 weeks, the student will be required to make two presentations to peers about the goals of their work in the beginning and their results. They will also have to write up their results, with plots, into a journal-quality article.
References:	1. Euclid Red Book https://sci.esa.int/web/euclid/-/48983-euclid-definition-study-report-esa-sre-2011-12 2. How one can use galaxy colors to constrain distances https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022hst..prop17091F/abstract 3. Searching for galaxy overdensities https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.10290v1
Student Requirements:	Physics & Astronomy background, Programming with Python, Experience with calibrating astronomy data sets.
Programs:	This AO can be done under the following programs:   Program    Available To        Amgen Scholars    Non-Caltech students only          SURF    both Caltech and non-Caltech students  Click on a program name for program info and application requirements.