About me
I am a postdoctoral research assistant at the Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht Leiden) of the Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Earlier, between May 2012 and April 2015, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town in South Africa.
In my research, I'm using data to learn as much as possible about our Universe. I might be thus called an observational cosmologist, although certainly not an observer (yet?).
News!
The paper is available from arXiv.
For press releases see here (English) and here (Dutch).
My research interests
I'm working on extracting as much information as posible from currently available vast amounts of astronomical data, especially in deep, wide-angle surveys.
I'm also interested in the interface of theory and observations, such as applying available data to test cosmological models and their consequences.
In general, my research interests cover observational cosmology and large-scale structure of the Universe, and in particular such topics as:
- wide-angle galaxy surveys, especially all-sky;
- photometric redshifts;
- cosmic density and velocity fields;
- redshift and peculiar velocity surveys;
- cosmic flows;
- automatic source classification;
- machine learning in astronomy;
- determination of cosmological parameters;
- discrimination between cosmological models.
If you have any ideas for common projects related to the above, or just want to get in touch, feel free to send me an email at bilicki(at)strw.leidenuniv.nl.
My current projects
I'm currently leading a long-term project of generating the largest all-sky three-dimensional catalogues of galaxies and inferring cosmological information from them. For that purpose, together with my collaborators (Tom Jarrett, John Peacock and others), we have been using photometric datasets covering the whole sky (2MASS, WISE and SuperCOSMOS) and appropriate spectroscopic samples (2MRS, 2dFGS, 6dFGRS, SDSS, GAMA), to generate photometric redshift datasets on unprecedented angular scales.
The details and the first major outcome of this project, the 2MASS Photometric Redshift catalogue (2MPZ), are described in a paper published in ApJS, available also at arXiv:1311.5246.
The 2MPZ data (now in version 1.1) are publicly available from SuperCOSMOS Science Archive in Edinburgh.
A new photometric all-sky catalogue, based on WISE and SuperCOSMOS, and much deeper than the 2MPZ, is now described in the relevant ApJS paper (arXiv:1607.01182). The WISE x SCOS data are available for download also from SSA, Edinburgh.
These catalogues are now being used for various cosmological tests, such as those available from cross-matching galaxy data with the CMB (e.g. the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect).
The 2MPZ catalogue has been recently proposed as input for electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational wave events; see arXiv:1606.05001.
My publications
As the first author
- WISE x SuperCOSMOS Photometric Redshift Catalog: 20 Million Galaxies over 3pi Steradians. M. Bilicki, J. Peacock, T. Jarrett, M. Cluver, et al. 2016, ApJS, 225, 1, 5. arXiv:1606.05001
Data available from WFAU Edinburgh through this link.
- 2MASS Photometric Redshift catalog: a comprehensive three-dimensional census of the whole sky. M. Bilicki, T. Jarrett, J. Peacock, M. Cluver & L. Steward. 2014, ApJS, 210, 1, 9. arXiv:1311.5246
Data available from WFAU Edinburgh through this link.
- We do not live in the R_h = ct universe. M. Bilicki & M. Seikel. 2012, MNRAS, 425, 1664.
arXiv:1206.5130
- Is the Two
Micron All Sky Survey clustering dipole convergent? M. Bilicki, M.J. Chodorowski, T.
Jarrett & G.A. Mamon. 2011, ApJ, 741, 31.
arXiv:1102.4356
- Influence of the Local Void on measurements of the clustering dipole.
M. Bilicki & M.J. Chodorowski. 2010, MNRAS, 406, 1358.
arXiv:1001.4789
- The velocity-density relation in the spherical model.
M. Bilicki & M.J. Chodorowski. 2008, MNRAS, 391, 1796.
arXiv:0809.3513
As a co-author
- Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Exploring the WISE Cosmic Web in G12. T.H. Jarrett, M.E. Cluver, C. Magoulas, M. Bilicki, et al. 2016, ApJ, submitted. arXiv:1607.01190
- Machine-learning identification of galaxies in the WISE x SuperCOSMOS all-sky catalogue. T. Krakowski, K. Małek, M. Bilicki, A. Pollo, M. Krupa & A. Kurcz. 2016, A&A, in press. arXiv:1607.01188
- The SuperCOSMOS all-sky galaxy catalogue. J.A. Peacock, N.C. Hambly, M. Bilicki, et al. 2016, MNRAS, 462, 2. arXiv:1607.01189
- Swift follow-up of gravitational wave triggers: results from the first aLIGO run and optimisation for the future. P.A. Evans, J.A. Kennea, D.M. Palmer, M. Bilicki, et al. 2016, MNRAS, 462, 2. arXiv:1606.05001
- Towards automatic classification of all WISE sources. A. Kurcz, M. Bilicki, A. Solarz, M. Krupa, A. Pollo & K. Małek. 2016, A&A, 592, A25. arXiv:1604.04229
-
Extragalactic sources in Cosmic Microwave Background maps. G. De Zotti, G. Castex, J. Gonzalez-Nuevo, ..., M. Bilicki, et al. 2015, JCAP, 06, 018. arXiv:1501.02170
- Homogeneity and isotropy in the 2MASS Photometric Redshift catalogue. D. Alonso, A.I. Salvador, F.J. Sanchez, M. Bilicki, J. Garcia-Bellido & E. Sanchez. 2015, MNRAS, 449, 1. arXiv:1412.5151
- SALT long-slit spectroscopy of CTS C30.10: two-component Mg II line. J. Modzelewska, B. Czerny, K. Hryniewicz, M. Bilicki, et al. 2014, A&A, 570, id.A53. arXiv:1408.1520
- The Norma cluster (ACO 3627) - III. The distance and peculiar velocity via the near-infrared Ks-band Fundamental Plane. T. Mutabazi, S.L. Blyth, P.A. Woudt, J.R. Lucey, T.H. Jarrett, M. Bilicki, A.C. Schroder & S.A.W Moore. 2014, MNRAS, 439, 4. arXiv:1401.7478
- Towards equation of state of dark energy from quasar monitoring: Reverberation strategy. B. Czerny, K. Hryniewicz, I. Maity, A. Schwarzenberg-Czerny, P.T. Zycki & M. Bilicki. 2013, A&A, 556, id.A97. arXiv:1212.0472
- Towards the optimal window for the 2MASS dipole. M.J. Chodorowski, J.-B. Coiffard, M. Bilicki, S. Colombi & P. Ciecielag.
2008, MNRAS, 389, 717.
arXiv:0706.0619
Conference proceedings
- Cosmology with all-sky surveys. M. Bilicki. arXiv:1512.05198
- Automatised classification of WISE sources: first results, future prospects. A. Kurcz, M. Krupa, M. Bilicki, et al. arXiv:1512.03604
- Learning algorithms at the service of WISE survey. K. Małek, T. Krakowski, M. Bilicki, et al. arXiv:1512.03597
- Mapping the Cosmic Web with the largest all-sky surveys. M. Bilicki, J.A. Peacock, T.H. Jarrett, M.E. Cluver & L. Steward. arXiv:1408.0799
- Quasars as tracers of cosmic flows. J. Modzelewska, B. Czerny, M. Bilicki, et al. arXiv:1410.0127
- Hierarchical clustering and the BAO signature. W.A. Hellwing, R. Juszkiewicz, R. van de Weygaert & M. Bilicki. arXiv:1302.5139
- Precision cosmology with the 2MASS clustering dipole. M. Bilicki, M. Chodorowski, W. Hellwing, T. Jarrett & G. Mamon. arXiv:1211.1246
- Is the 2MASS dipole convergent? M. Chodorowski, M. Bilicki, G.A. Mamon & T. Jarrett. arXiv:1006.0359
I have also served as a referee for A&A, Astroparticle Physics, MNRAS and Physics Letters B.
My education
I have obtained my PhD at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
My advisor was Michal Chodorowski.
My PhD project was to constrain the mean matter density of the
Universe from the clustering dipole of the Two Micron All Sky Survey
Extended Source Catalog (2MASS XSC).
My thesis titled "Motion of the Local Group as a cosmological probe" is available from arXiv:1205.1970.
For my MSc I worked on the cosmic density-velocity relation
in the spherical collapse model. I graduated in astronomy from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland.
Before that, I had obtained a MSc degree in mathematics with computer science at the University of Lodz.
Last updated on 16 November 2016.
