Research Areas

Cosmology and Large-scale Structure (CLSS)

Cosmology studies the universe as a whole. Theoretical cosmology builds theories of the birth and evolution of the universe, and observational cosmology studies the large-scale structure (LSS) in order to test those theories and make a spatio-temporal map of cosmos. LSS contains groups and clusters of galaxies organized in a vast network called the cosmic web. During the first billion years of the universe, the intergalactic media became ionized as more galaxies formed, and over the first few billion years cosmic voids built up due the clustering of galaxies in overdense regions. Within this broad area, our researchers work on radio observations of cosmic hydrogen from the cosmic dawn, dark ages and the epoch of reionization, and on the optical observation of early galaxies.

Galaxies, their Groups and Clusters (GGC)

Gravitational Physics (GP)

Optical Instrumentation (OI)

Radio Instrumentation (RI)

Radio telescopes and arrays are one of the most important probes for learning about the structure and evolution of the universe and its largest components, the galaxies and their clusters. In order to extract scientific information from radio observations, it is essential to know the telescope precisely. Until recently, it was enough to know the direction (toward sky) independent systematic effects of a radio telescope, but we must understand the direction dependent effects accurately for the modern wide-field cosmological observations.

We try to understand the direction dependent systematic effects of radio telescopes to facilitate astronomical observations. For example, we work with the observations of LOFAR and MeerKAT to understand the effects of their primary beam.