Tomographic Cross-Correlations of MALS Radio Cubes with DES Galaxy Surveys

Project Description:

In this project we will use real survey data to make deep MeerKAT MALS radio cubes and DES galaxy maps 'see' the same large‑scale structure. Treating the radio cubes as 3D intensity and source-density fields, we’ll construct tomographic cross-correlations with DES galaxy overdensity maps in redshift bins, using estimators that handle many small, disjoint MALS pointings rather than a single contiguous field. We'll build calibrated radio tracers, match them to DES tomographic samples, and measure clustering signals as a function of redshift. This will be one of the first systematic radio-optical cross‑correlation studies with MALS and DES.

Research Area:

Astrophysics

Project Level:

Masters

This Project Is Offered At The Following Node(s):

(UCT)(UKZN)(NWU)

Special Requirements:

Basic understanding of cosmology and comfortable on working with real, imperfect survey data is important, since the project is data-driven.