Dr. David Lagattuta
I am largely interested in probing the distribution of matter throughout the universe. The main tool of my trade is gravitational lensing, which is useful for studying mass over a wide range of scales -- from the Large Scale Structure (at hundreds of Mpc) to dwarf satellite galaxies (at only a few tens of kpc). I am particularly interested in understanding the matter distributions of individual galaxies, and much of my work has been spent combining strong and weak lensing to study the interactions between the luminous, baryon-rich cores of galaxies, and their extended, dark matter halos.
In addition to my own research, I am also part of the ARC Cente of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO). As a CAASTRO Fellow, I am responsible for creating high-quality catalogs of galaxy magnitudes, using data obtained from wide-field survey telescopes (such as SkyMaper and Pan-STARRS). While there are several applications for such catalogs, our team uses them to derive the peculiar velocities of late-type galaxies in the local (z < 0.1) universe, via the Tully-Fisher relation. By mapping the bulk-flow properties of the peculiar velocity field, we enhance our understanding of the structure of nearby dark matter, giving us a clearer picture of the mass environment surrounding the Milky Way and its closest neighbors.
| Phone | +61 3 9214 8724 | |
| Fax | +61 3 9214 8797 | |
| Office | SA110 |