Squeezed Bispectrum Correlations of MeerKLASS HI with DES Galaxies and Shear

Project Description:

HI intensity mapping with MeerKAT and weak/galaxy lensing from optical surveys probe the same underlying large-scale structure with complementary systematics. The MeerKAT Large Area Synoptic Survey (MeerKLASS) produces deep single-dish HI intensity maps over hundreds of square degrees, reaching the HI‐dominated regime in L‐band auto‐power. The Dark Energy Survey (DES) has delivered high-quality galaxy clustering and cosmic shear catalogues over ∼5000 square degrees with well-characterised photometric redshifts and systematics. A cross‐correlation between MeerKLASS and DES is thus a natural next step. The aim of this project is to build a unified analysis towards a measurement of the MeerKLASS×DES squeezed-limit cross-bispectrum.

Research Area:

Astrophysics

Project Level:

Masters

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

(UCT)(UKZN)(NWU)

Special Requirements:

Students should have an Honours-level background in cosmology, including familiarity with basic statistics. Strong proficiency in Python is essential, and experience with handling survey data is desirable but can be developed during the project. The student must be comfortable working with real, imperfect radio and optical data and running computational simulations.