András Kovács - Cosmologist
I view myself primarily as a data-oriented astrophysicist who focuses on the characterisation of the cosmic large-scale structure (LSS). I specialised in novel observational probes of the mysterious dark energy, that is among the biggest puzzles in fundamental physics today.
I devoted my career to understand this mystery. You can find more details about my research on the web page of the Cosmo-LSS research group at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) where I currently hold a Juan de la Cierva Incorporación postdoctoral fellowship.
Keywords
Cosmology, Dark Energy, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Cosmic voids
International collaborations
Dark Energy Survey (DES), Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), Euclid, J-PAS, WEAVE-QSO
Publications, congresses
- Number of papers = 36, Total citations = 2088, h-index = 20 (ADS)
- regular speaker at international DES, Euclid, and DESI collaboration meetings
- 36 oral and 10 poster contributions at international conferences
- 10+ invited presentations and plenary talks at prestigious conferences and institutes
News
“Scientists move a step closer to understanding the cold spot in the cosmic microwave background” - see the Fermilab and the IAC press releases.
Researcher Profile
The standard ΛCDM (Lambda-Cold Dark Matter) cosmological model has emerged as the consensus model of Einstein’s generally relativistic universe. It has shown truly remarkable explanatory power over a variety of cosmic scales and epochs, and it narrates a reassuring story of a model universe currently filled mostly with dark matter and dark energy. However, this explanation is not completely satisfactory because the actual nature of the dark sector remains a key puzzle.
To address this problem, international collaborations have built new instruments to map ever larger cosmological volumes. I have led data-analysis projects (with about 100 participants) in state-of-the-art galaxy and quasar surveys (DES, Euclid, eBOSS), with a pioneering role in precise measurements and simulations of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect (ISW) effect.
In particular, I established myself as a leading international expert in mapping the largest under-dense structures in the cosmic web, the cosmic voids, that I have used for CMB-LSS cross-correlation studies. My ground-breaking results in observational cosmology have generated considerable media attention including a cover of the Scientific American and a Fermilab press release.
CV summary
My career can be summarised as a series of fruitful transfers of knowledge in data-analysis to ever more complicated cosmological data sets. I obtained my PhD degree from the Eötvös University (2011-2014), supported by significant training at the University of Hawaii (USA). Then, I had postdoc positions at the Institut de Física d’Altes Energíes (IFAE, 2014-18), and at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, 2018-22). Working with two PhD students and a MSc student, I now hold a Juan de la Cierva Incorporación fellowship (success rate <7,5%).
Since 2016, I have been co-convener of the DES “Voids and Troughs” analysis team (~15-20 international researchers). I am also founding member of the “EuclidVoids” research team (~90 scientists). My extensive experience with data analysis and my leadership in international collaborations now put me in a strong position to lead the planned ISW and lensing analyses for the next big cosmological experiments (DESI, Euclid, LSST, J-PAS, WEAVE-QSO) that will provide unprecedented new data in the next 5-6 years with vital Spanish contributions.
