The LMU/USM - MPE extragalactic research group is a joint effort of the University Observatory of Munich (USM) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. The group is located both at the LMU/USM (see 'Extragalactic Astronomy') and at MPE. Senior group members are Prof. Dr. Ralf Bender, Dr. Maximilian Fabricius, PD Dr. Roberto P. Saglia, PD Dr. Ariel G. Sánchez, and Dr. Jens Thomas.
The research of the group focuses on dark energy and dark matter in the Universe, and on the properties of local and distant galaxies. The aims of our current science projects are:
- to constrain the nature of dark matter, by analysing cluster and galaxy dark matter halo profiles with strong and weak lensing and with dynamical models.
- to derive constraints on the nature of dark energy, by studying the large-scale structure of the Universe by means of weak lensing and clustering measurements
- to understand the structure of local and distant galaxies, their stellar populations, their formation and evolution
- to study supermassive black holes and how they influence the central regions of galaxies
We pursue these science questions with a combination of optical and near-infrared observations, theory, numerical modelling, and data interpretation.
The observational data necessary for our scientific programs come from a large variety of telescopes, primarily the Euclid Space Mission, the ESO VLT Telescopes, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope HET, the 2.7m telescope of the McDonald observatory, the USM 2m Fraunhofer telescope at the Wendelstein observatory in the Bavarian Alps, and also HST. We have guaranteed access to telescopes for providing instruments (e.g., soon MICADO).
Developing and applying highly advanced orbit-based dynamical models we search for supermassive black holes, reconstruct the stellar orbital distributions and formation histories of galaxies and measure precise dark matter halo profiles to constrain the nature of dark matter.
Our group participates with a significant role in large international surveys. Examples are the completed Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), and extended BOSS (eBOSS), the Dark Energy Survey (DES), the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) survey, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, and the ESA space mission Euclid. Galaxy clustering and gravitational lensing measurements based on these data sets probe the large-scale structure of the universe with unprecedented precision, providing invaluable information on the nature of dark matter and dark energy, the growth of structure, neutrino masses and inflationary physics. They also allow us to study the evolution of galaxies in their cosmological context. The design, construction, analysis, modelling and interpretation of these data sets are some of the main activities of our group.
The numerical modelling required for our projects is based on state-of-the-art algorithms run on supercomputers. Some of these methods are developed or implemented within our group. A recent example is Schwarzschild's orbit superposition method used in our search for the most massive black holes in the local universe.
This year, we offer PhD projects within our group in the following scientific areas:
- Dynamical modelling of galaxies
- Cosmological analysis of galaxy clustering measurements
For more details, visit our homepage OPINAS or PhD-Thesis Projects