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Cosmology

In cosmology, a branch of astrophysics, we measure distant objects to examine the large scale universe and learn about its structure, content, origin, and evolution.

In our group, our primary subject is the Cosmic Microwave Background. This is the afterglow of the Big Bang, seen today from deep space in the microwave-wavelength band of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. We also work on topics like large-scale structure, galaxy clusters, the cosmic X-ray background, and gravitational weak lensing.

As researchers who specialize in data analysis, we support observational projects that provide a steady flow of data for us to interpret. We help to plan for the next generation of scientific instruments so that this flow continues.

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Collaborations

Today, experimental designs are so ambitious that they require multinational collaborations to field the instruments and dedicated analysis teams to process the data. We now belong to three large, currently-active collaborations:

  • The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) took data from 2007-2022.
  • The Simons Observatory is currently taking data, starting in 2024 for the small-aperture telescope and 2025 for the large aperture telescopes.
  • The CMB-S4 project produced designs and R&D for a next-generation CMB observatory. This collaboration is winding down and transferring its accumulated knowledge to other experiments.

In the past, we worked with the Planck satellite mission and the Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET). We have worked on a number of independent projects in smaller groups, some related to the CMB and some related to other aspects of cosmology or astrophysics.

Our work is funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation

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Interests

Some of our specific interests include:

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Principal Investigator

Kevin Huffenberger

Professor

Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University
Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy
College Station, TX, 77843

khuffenberger at tamu.edu

Co-spokesperson, CMB-S4 collaboration, elected 2022-2024 term, re-elected 2024-2026 term.

Curriculum Vita

PDF format CV

Publications

SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) publication search
ArXiv search
Google scholar page
ORCID iD page

Support

We are grateful to the federal agencies for their generous support.

"Confronting CMB Foreground Models with Planck data" (NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program award, 2023-2025)
"Millimeter-wavelength transients and sources with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Simons Observatory" (NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Grant, 2022-2025)
"CMB Polarization Foreground Effects on B-modes and Lensing" (NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Grant, 2020-2023)
"Next Generation Data Analysis For Next Generation Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments" (NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Grant, 2018-2023)
"Modeling CMB polarization foregrounds and their isotropy violation" (NASA Astrophysics Theory Program, 2017-2022).

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Group Members

Postdoctoral associates

Fazlu Rahman Panam Parambil
Research projects: Polarization foregrounds, filamentary structure, and non-gaussian statistics.

Cristian Vargas
Research projects: Emissive sources in CMB / mm-wave maps, source follow up, transients.

Graduate students

Bai-Chiang Chiang
Research projects: mapmaking.

Sophia Paulino Korte
Research projects: CMB lensing, including foreground effects.

Aaron Hughes
Research projects: follow up and characterization of emissive mm-wave sources and dusty galaxies.

Undergraduate students

Catherine Chaison
Research projects: Power spectra of galaxy clusters

Sasha Ostrovsky
Research projects: characterizing galaxy cluster in SZ and spectroscopic data sets

Mabry Hogan
Research projects: computing correlations

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Resources

What to expect
Funding
Professional Development

To succeed, you need so many more skills than you can obtain in an undergraduate or graduate physics classroom. Here are some resources that may be helpful in developing quality writing, mentoring relationships, academic productivity, and so on.

Writing for Science
Keeping your head together

Beyond the technical trickiness of research, many people find advanced, postgraduate education is fraught with other difficulties. Some of these include social pressure, anxiety (e.g. impostor syndrome, stereotype threat), and stress. These can be scary and unpleasant to address, but are often the biggest barriers that high-achieving people face.

For example, mindfulness meditation training was enormously helpful to me in addressing anxiety and panic attacks. These resources below can be helpful for a start, but a meditation group and supportive community are also useful.

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Former Members

Former postdoctoral associates

Gabriela Marques
Research projects: Cross-correlations with CMB lensing, foreground effects on lensing, extra-galactic source based pointing corrections, Wiener-filtering techniques.

Carlos Hervias-Caimapo
Research projects: B-mode measurements, Milky Way polarization foregrounds, extra-galactic source based pointing corrections, mm-wavelength transient sources.

Aditya Rotti
Research projects: Isotropy statistics of the CMB, B-mode foregrounds; clustering of large scale structure.

Jan Kratochvil
Research projects: N-body simulations, weak gravitational lensing.

Former graduate students

John Waldroup
Research projects: point sources. MS 2023.

Felipe Maldonado
Research projects: Joint analysis of CMB lensing and large scale structure. PhD 2021.

Victoria Lakey
Research projects: CMB/X-ray background cross-correlations. PhD 2020.

S. Lucas Denny
Research projects: filament models of polarization foregrounds. HI high-velocity clouds. MS 2020.

Brittany Fuzia
Research projects: Stacking analysis of SZ clusters. PhD 2019.

Former undergraduate students

Shaheed Perez
Research projects: Power spectra of galactic dust.

Chika Onubogu
Research projects: power spectrum estimation.

Jacob Strack
Research projects: mapmaking.

Rebecca Van Gelder
Research projects: Transients sources in mm-wave data.

Kasey Schultz
Research projects: extragalactic point sources and SZ clusters in WMAP data.