Phone: (773)702-4249
Location: ERC 415
Email: andreyoddjob.uchicago.edu
WWW: Web Site
CV: Curriculum Vitae

Cosmology, structure formation in the Universe, numerical simulations.

Study of structure formation in the Universe is an area of forefront research in astrophysics. The early evolution, when the seed fluctuations are small, can be calculated analitycally on a piece of paper without the help of large supercomputers. As the fluctuations grow in their amplitude, the evolution becomes too complex and theorists have to use computers to follow the subsequent evolution.

A typical simulation follows evolution of matter in a large box which expands at the same rate as the Universe itself. The box thus always encompasses the same mass. Over the period of time evolved in simulations the Universe expands by a factor of more than 50 and so does the simulation box (you can find a nice illustration of this here). In order to make it simpler to visualize the formation of structures, the expansion can be taken out so that the simulation box appears static. In professional lingo, the system of coordinates that expands (or co-moves) with the Universe is called the comoving coordinate system.

As the Universe expands, galaxies become more and more distant from each other. For an observer, such as ourselves, it appears that all other galaxies fly away from us. The further the galaxy, the faster it appears to recede. This recession affects the light emitted by the distant galaxies, stretching the wavelengths of emitted photons due to the Doppler redshift effect. The distance between galaxies is proportionalto the measure of this effect 1+z, where z is what astronomers call redshift. The redshift can be measured for each object if its spectrum is measured.

In addition, it takes a very long time (up to several billion years) for the light from the most distant galaxies and quasars to reach us. Not only the light we receive from these objects is redshifted, but we also see these objects as they were during the early stages in the evolution of the Universe. In this sense, the redshift z provides a universal clock and can be used as a measure of time. Observations of distant galaxies is much like a time travel into the past.

Ongoing Scientific Projects:

• South Pole Telescope (SPT)

Past Students

GRADUATE: Philip Mansfield (2020), Vadim Semenov (2019), Cameron Liang (2018), Benedikt Diemer (2015), Denis Erkal (2013), Matthew Becker (2013), Samuel N. Leitner (2012), Gregory Vesper (2012), Hiroaki Oyaizu (2008), Douglas H. Rudd (2007), Jacqueline Chen (2006), Eduardo Rozo (2006), Daisuke Nagai (2005)

UNDERGRADUATE: Samuel Friedman (2004)

2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002


Latest Journal Publications

1. "Clustering constraints on the relative sizes of central and satellite galaxies", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 489, Issue 2, p.1805-1819 (Oct 2019)
2. "Training the Future Generation of Computational Researchers", Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, APC white papers, no. 11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 51, Issue 7, id. 11 (2019) (Sep 2019)
3. "Measurement of the splashback feature around SZ-selected Galaxy clusters with DES, SPT, and ACT", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 487, Issue 2, p.2900-2918 (Aug 2019)
4. "Clustering Constraints on the Relative Sizes of Central and Satellite Galaxies", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Advance Access (Aug 2019)
5. "Signatures of Self-Interacting dark matter on cluster density profile and subhalo distributions", arXiv:1906.12026 (Jun 2019)
6. "Imprint of Drivers of Galaxy Formation in the Circumgalactic Medium", Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, science white papers, no. 280; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 51, Issue 3, id. 280 (2019) (May 2019)
7. "Imprints of Mass Accretion History on the Shape of the Intracluster Medium and the $T_X-M$ Relation", arXiv:1903.08662 (Mar 2019)
8. "What Sets the Slope of the Molecular Kennicutt-Schmidt Relation?", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 870, Issue 2, article id. 79, 17 pp. (2019) (Jan 2019)
9. "The Buzzard Flock: Dark Energy Survey Synthetic Sky Catalogs", arXiv:1901.02401 (Jan 2019)
10. "The Three Causes of Low-Mass Assembly Bias", arXiv:1902.00030 (Jan 2019)
11. "Umbrella sampling: a powerful method to sample tails of distributions", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 480, Issue 3, p.4069-4079 (Nov 2018)
12. "DES Y1 Results: validating cosmological parameter estimation using simulated Dark Energy Surveys", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 480, Issue 4, p.4614-4635 (Nov 2018)
13. "Observing the circumgalactic medium of simulated galaxies through synthetic absorption spectra", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 479, Issue 2, p.1822-1835 (Sep 2018)
14. "The Splashback Feature around DES Galaxy Clusters: Galaxy Density and Weak Lensing Profiles", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 864, Issue 1, article id. 83, 18 pp. (2018) (Sep 2018)
15. "How Galaxies Form Stars: The Connection between Local and Global Star Formation in Galaxy Simulations", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 861, Issue 1, article id. 4, 20 pp. (2018) (Jul 2018)
16. "Cold fronts and shocks formed by gas streams in galaxy clusters", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 476, Issue 1, p.56-70 (May 2018)
17. "Enforcing the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition in explicitly conservative local time stepping schemes", Journal of Computational Physics, Volume 359, p. 93-105 (Apr 2018)
18. "Quenching of satellite galaxies at the outskirts of galaxy clusters", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 475, Issue 3, p.3654-3681 (Apr 2018)
19. "Clustering Constraints on the Relative Sizes of Central and Satellite Galaxies", arXiv:1711.10500 (Nov 2017)
20. "BayesVP: Full Bayesian Voigt profile fitting", Astrophysics Source Code Library, record ascl:1711.004 (Nov 2017)

Latest Conference Proceedings

1. "On detecting halo assembly bias with galaxy populations", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #227, id.307.05 (Jan 2016)
2. "The X-ray Surveyor Mission: a concept study", Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9601, id. 96010J 14 pp. (2015) (Aug 2015)
3. "Cosmological Simulations of Galaxy Clusters: from Cores to Outskirts", Cosmological simulations: from galaxies to large scales, Proceedings of the conference held 29 June - 4 July, 2015 in Sesto (BZ) Italy. Online at: http://www.sexten-cfa.eu/en/conferences/2015/details/56-simulating-galaxies-in-a-cosmological-context-where
4. "Theoretical expectations for the properties of hot gas around galaxies and prospects for future detection", American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #14, id.401.03 (Aug 2014)
5. "A High Throughput Workflow Environment for Cosmological Simulations", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #221, id.#352.21 (Jan 2013)
6. "Halo Occupation Properties of X-ray AGNs", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #220, #524.06 (May 2012)
7. "COsmic Sky MAchine (COSMA) For The Dark Energy Survey", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #248.13 (Jan 2012)
8. "Baryon content of clusters and groups in the context of hierarchical cosmology", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #309.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011 (May 2011)
9. "On the Kennicutt-Schmidt Relation of Low-Metallicity High-Redshift Galaxies", HUNTING FOR THE DARK: THE HIDDEN SIDE OF GALAXY FORMATION. Edited by Victor P. Debattista and Cristina C. Popescu AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1240, pp. 115-118 (2010) (Jun 2010)
10. "Environmental dependence of the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation: implications for evolution of high-z galaxies", From Stars to Galaxies: Connecting our Understanding of Star and Galaxy Formation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA, 7-10 April 2010. Online at http://conference.astro.ufl.edu/STARSTOGALAXIES, id.192 (Apr 2010)

Past Visitors:

1. Vasily Belokurov, University of Cambridge/CCA, NYC (2018)
2. renato dupke, Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor / Nat. Observatory, Brazil (2016)
3. Andrew Hearin, Yale University (2016)
4. Greg Stinson, MPIA (2014)
5. Nicholas Battaglia, Carnegie Mellon University (2013)
6. Peter Behroozi, Stanford University (2013)
7. Shy Genel, Harvard-CfA (2013)
8. Oleg Gnedin, University of Michigan (2013)
9. Sam Leitner, University of Maryland (2013)
10. Kate Rubin, MPIA (2013)
11. Federico Sembolini, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) (2013)
12. Liang Yu, Yale University (2013)
13. Anatoly Klypin, NMSU (2012)
14. Niayesh Afshordi, Perimeter Institute/ University of Waterloo (2011)
15. Megan Johnson, NRAO - Green Bank (2011)
16. Douglas Rudd, Yale University (2011)
17. David Weinberg, Ohio State University (2011)
18. Charlie Conroy, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2010)
19. Neal Dalal, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (2010)
20. Ji-hoon Kim, KIPAC, Stanford University (2010)
21. Douglas Rudd, Yale University (2010)
22. Douglas Rudd, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2010)
23. Doug Watson, Vanderbilt University (2010)
24. Markus Wetzstein, Princeton University (2010)
25. Nadia Zakamska, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2010)
26. Marcel Zemp, University of Michigan (2010)
27. Andrew Zentner, University of Pittsburgh (2010)
28. Tom Abel, KIPAC, Stanford University (2009)
29. Jonathan Tan, University of Florida (2009)
30. Neal Dalal, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (2008)
31. Tobias Goerdt, Racah Institute of Physics (2008)
32. Natalia Ivanova, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (2008)
33. Anatoly Klypin, New Mexico State University (2008)
34. Yu Qingjuan, University of California, Santa Cruz (2008)
35. Massimo Ricotti, University of Maryland (2008)
36. Kyle Stewart, University of California, Irvine (2008)
37. Hans Boehringer, Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterr. Physik (2007)
38. Daniel Ceverino, New Mexico State University (2007)
39. August Evrard, University of Michigan (2007)
40. Fabio Gastaldello, University of California, Irvine (2007)
41. Marla Geha, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (2007)
42. Stelios Kazantzidis, Stanford University (2007)
43. Maxim Markevitch, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2007)
44. Volker Mueller, Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam (2007)
45. Dimitrios Psaltis, University of Arizona (2007)
46. Michael Rauch, Carnegie Observatories (2007)
47. Darren Reed, Los Alamos National Laboratory (2007)
48. Frank van den Bosch, Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy (2007)
49. Alexey Vikhlinin, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2007)
50. Hu Zhan, University of California, Davis (2007)
51. Kevork Abazajian, University of Maryland (2006)
52. Darren Croton, University of California, Berkeley (2006)
53. Anatoly Klypin, New Mexico State University (2006)
54. Joel Primack, University of California, Santa Cruz (2006)
55. Brant Robertson, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2006)
56. James Bullock, University of California, Irvine (2005)
57. Nick Gnedin, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (2005)
58. Stelios Kazantzidis, University of Zurich (2005)
59. Lucio Mayer, Institute of Astronomy, ETH Zurich (2005)
60. Alexey Vikhlinin, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2005)
61. Yago Ascasibar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2004)
62. David Hogg, New York University (2004)
63. Stelios Kazantzidis, University of Zurich (2004)
64. Francisco Prada, Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (2004)
65. Joel Primack, University of California, Santa Cruz (2004)
66. James Bullock, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2003)
67. Thomas Cox, University of California, Santa Cruz (2003)
68. Nick Gnedin, University of Colorado (2003)
69. Arieh Maller, University of Massachussetts (2003)
70. Paul Oreto, Princeton University (2003)
71. Alan Peel, University of California, Davis (2003)
72. Jason Prochaska, University of California, Santa Cruz (2003)
73. Anatoly Klypin, New Mexico State University (2002)
74. Octavio Valenzuela, New Mexico State University (2002)
75. Andrew Zentner, Ohio State University (2002)