About Me
I'm a Postdoctoral fellow at Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA, Heidelberg). My current research is mostly oriented towards understanding star clusters in galaxies, and primarily focusing on low-mass clusters to eventually constrain the dissolution theory of star clusters. However, I also contribute to many data modeling, especially using probabilistic inferences in astronomy but also other domains of physics.
My current main project is the construction of Gaia hyrid catalogs, a project that will combine all ancillary data with the most up to date Gaia measurements to infer the most precise information of objects in the Gaia Mission Survey and ultimately the to understand our own galaxy.
Recent Selected Research
A small selection of current projects and research.
The vast majority of clusters in the Universe are small, and it is well known that the integrated fluxes and colors of all but the most massive ones have broad probability distributions, owing to small numbers of bright stars.
Systematics and errors arising from the use of standard analysis methods, which are based on continuous population synthesis models are large. Systematic errors on ages and random errors on masses are large, while systematic errors on masses tend to be smaller.
Using the probabilistic technique from Fouesneau, M., Lançon, A., 2010, we derived ages, masses and extinction values of star clusters in the PHAT survey (Johnson et al., 2015).
We find that the cluster age distribution is consistent with being uniform over the past 100 Myr, which suggests a weak effect of cluster disruption within M31.
Fouesneau et al., 2014
We find that the mass distribution of the whole sample can be well-described by a single power-law with a spectral index of −1.9 ± 0.1 However, we find that the present day mass spectral index varies significantly with environment with the shallower slope in the highest star formation intensity regions.
Fouesneau et al., 2014
We currently work on infering the disruption processes and initial mass function with respect to environment and star formation intensity in M31
(Coming soon)
We currently work on infering the disruption processes and initial mass function with respect to environment and star formation intensity in M31 from the PHAT survey.
Codes
A small selection of scientific codes
PyPegase is a stellar population synthesis suite in python that aims at generating integrated spectra of discrete populations. It may be easily used by anyone, familiar or not with spectral evolution questions. Further improvements will also be available as PEGASE is still under active development.
This code upgrades the latest version of the spectro-photometric model of galaxy evolution PEGASE.2 (Fioc and Rocca-Volmerange 1997) with a new initial mass function considerations which explicitly account for stochastic fluctuations due to finite and small number of stars in populations of stellar cluster scales.
The code sources, including input data, and stellar libraries are currently available on demand .
(Under construction)
the Bayesian Extinction and Stellar Tool (BEAST) is a probabilistic approach to infering stellar parameters and line of sight attenuation from the dust attenuated photometric spectral energy distribution of an individual star, which accounts for observational uncertainties common to large resolved star surveys. Specifically, the inference model accounts for measurement uncertainties and any correlation between them due to photon noise, stellar crowding (systematic biases and uncertainties in the bias), and absolute flux calibration.
(check github for more) All codes should work with python 2.6+ and 3.
Fast algorithms to do statistics
This package is my current exploration on how to make
fast statistics on big data. Functions are typically
several orders of magnitude faster, or so they claim.
direct interface to the PADOVA/PARSEC isochrone
webpage
It compiles the URL needed to query the website and
retrives the data into a python table variable easy to
manipulate.
Works with all their available models.
SAMPy Client package providing a very small VO interactivity using the SAMP protocol. This allows anyone to easily send and receive data to VO applications such as Aladin, Topcat or DS9.
EZMAPmake python parallel mapping even simpler Everything goes through the same command: map! which also includes a progress indicator.
No-U-Turn Sampler (NUTS) as in Hoffman and Gelman, (2011)
Differential EvolutionDifferential evolution optimization method by Storn and Price (1997)
BGLSBayesian Generalized Lomb-Scargle periodogram as in described in Mortier et al. (2014).
MPL contour add-ona low-level contour computation for Matplotlib that could give me the polygones without the need to make an actual figure and extract the curves from the contour object.
- The High-mass Stellar Initial Mass Function in M31 Clusters
Weisz, D. R., Johnson, L. C., Foreman-Mackey, D., Dolphin, A. E., Beerman, L. C., Williams, B. F., Dalcanton, J. J., Rix, H.-W., Hogg, D. W., Fouesneau, M., Johnson, B. D., Bell, E. F., Boyer, M. L., Gouliermis, D., Guhathakurta, P., Kalirai, J. S., Lewis, A. R., Seth, A. C., Skillman, E. D., 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 806, 198 [1 citations]
2015ApJ...806..198W - A Global Star-forming Episode in M31 2-4 Gyr Ago
Williams, B. F., Dalcanton, J. J., Dolphin, A. E., Weisz, D. R., Lewis, A. R., Lang, D., Bell, E. F., Boyer, M., Fouesneau, M., Gilbert, K. M., Monachesi, A., Skillman, E., 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 806, 48 [3 citations]
2015ApJ...806...48W - The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. XI. The Spatially Resolved
Recent Star Formation History of M31
Lewis, A. R., Dolphin, A. E., Dalcanton, J. J., Weisz, D. R., Williams, B. F., Bell, E. F., Seth, A. C., Simones, J. E., Skillman, E. D., Choi, Y., Fouesneau, M., Guhathakurta, P., Johnson, L. C., Kalirai, J. S., Leroy, A. K., Monachesi, A., Rix, H.-W., Schruba, A., 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 805, 183 [5 citations]
2015ApJ...805..183L - PHAT Stellar Cluster Survey. II. Andromeda Project Cluster Catalog
Johnson, L. C., Seth, A. C., Dalcanton, J. J., Wallace, M. L., Simpson, R. J., Lintott, C. J., Kapadia, A., Skillman, E. D., Caldwell, N., Fouesneau, M., Weisz, D. R., Williams, B. F., Beerman, L. C., Gouliermis, D. A., Sarajedini, A., 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 802, 127 [1 citations]
2015ApJ...802..127J - The Survey of Lines in M31 (SLIM): Investigating the Origins of [C II]
Emission
Kapala, M. J., Sandstrom, K., Groves, B., Croxall, K., Kreckel, K., Dalcanton, J., Leroy, A., Schinnerer, E., Walter, F., Fouesneau, M., 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 798, 24 [3 citations]
2015ApJ...798...24K - The Supernova Progenitor Mass Distributions of M31 and M33: Further
Evidence for an Upper Mass Limit
Jennings, Z. G., Williams, B. F., Murphy, J. W., Dalcanton, J. J., Gilbert, K. M., Dolphin, A. E., Weisz, D. R., Fouesneau, M., 2014, The Astrophysical Journal, 795, 170 [4 citations]
2014ApJ...795..170J - Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. IX. A Photometric Survey of
Planetary Nebulae in M31
Veyette, M. J., Williams, B. F., Dalcanton, J. J., Balick, B., Caldwell, N., Fouesneau, M., Girardi, L., Gordon, K. D., Kalirai, J., Rosenfield, P., Seth, A. C., 2014, The Astrophysical Journal, 792, 121 [3 citations]
2014ApJ...792..121V - The age distribution of stellar clusters in M83
Silva-Villa, E., Adamo, A., Bastian, N., Fouesneau, M., Zackrisson, E., 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 440, L116 [9 citations]
2014MNRAS.440L.116S - The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. V. Ages and Masses of the
Year 1 Stellar Clusters
Fouesneau, M., Johnson, L. C., Weisz, D. R., Dalcanton, J. J., Bell, E. F., Bianchi, L., Caldwell, N., Gouliermis, D. A., Guhathakurta, P., Kalirai, J., Larsen, S. S., Rix, H.-W., Seth, A. C., Skillman, E. D., Williams, B. F., 2014, The Astrophysical Journal, 786, 117 [10 citations]
2014ApJ...786..117F - The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. VII. The Steep
Mid-ultraviolet to Near-infrared Extinction Curve in the Central 200 pc of
the M31 Bulge
Dong, H., Li, Z., Wang, Q. D., Lauer, T. R., Olsen, K., Saha, A., Dalcanton, J., Gordon, K., Fouesneau, M., Bell, E., Bianchi, L., 2014, The Astrophysical Journal, 785, 136 [7 citations]
2014ApJ...785..136D - The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. IV. A Probabilistic Approach
to Inferring the High-mass Stellar Initial Mass Function and Other
Power-law Functions
Weisz, D. R., Fouesneau, M., Hogg, D. W., Rix, H.-W., Dolphin, A. E., Dalcanton, J. J., Foreman-Mackey, D. T., Lang, D., Johnson, L. C., Beerman, L. C., Bell, E. F., Gordon, K. D., Gouliermis, D., Kalirai, J. S., Skillman, E. D., Williams, B. F., 2013, The Astrophysical Journal, 762, 123 [17 citations]
2013ApJ...762..123W - Supernova Remnant Progenitor Masses in M31
Jennings, Z. G., Williams, B. F., Murphy, J. W., Dalcanton, J. J., Gilbert, K. M., Dolphin, A. E., Fouesneau, M., Weisz, D. R., 2012, The Astrophysical Journal, 761, 26 [12 citations]
2012ApJ...761...26J - The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. III. Measuring Ages and
Masses of Partially Resolved Stellar Clusters
Beerman, L. C., Johnson, L. C., Fouesneau, M., Dalcanton, J. J., Weisz, D. R., Seth, A. C., Williams, B. F., Bell, E. F., Bianchi, L. C., Caldwell, N., Dolphin, A. E., Gouliermis, D. A., Kalirai, J. S., Larsen, S. S., Melbourne, J. L., Rix, H.-W., Skillman, E. D., 2012, The Astrophysical Journal, 760, 104 [7 citations]
2012ApJ...760..104B - PHAT Stellar Cluster Survey. I. Year 1 Catalog and Integrated
Photometry
Johnson, L. C., Seth, A. C., Dalcanton, J. J., Caldwell, N., Fouesneau, M., Gouliermis, D. A., Hodge, P. W., Larsen, S. S., Olsen, K. A. G., San Roman, I., Sarajedini, A., Weisz, D. R., Williams, B. F., Beerman, L. C., Bianchi, L., Dolphin, A. E., Girardi, L., Guhathakurta, P., Kalirai, J., Lang, D., Monachesi, A., Nanda, S., Rix, H.-W., Skillman, E. D., 2012, The Astrophysical Journal, 752, 95 [24 citations]
2012ApJ...752...95J - The ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury. X. Quantifying the Star Cluster
Formation Efficiency of nearby Dwarf Galaxies
Cook, D. O., Seth, A. C., Dale, D. A., Johnson, L. C., Weisz, D. R., Fouesneau, M., Olsen, K. A. G., Engelbracht, C. W., Dalcanton, J. J., 2012, The Astrophysical Journal, 751, 100 [20 citations]
2012ApJ...751..100C - Analyzing Star Cluster Populations with Stochastic Models: The Hubble
Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 Sample of Clusters in M83
Fouesneau, M., Lançon, A., Chandar, R., Whitmore, B. C., 2012, The Astrophysical Journal, 750, 60 [25 citations]
2012ApJ...750...60F - Spectroscopic constraints on the form of the stellar cluster mass
function
Bastian, N., Konstantopoulos, I. S., Trancho, G., Weisz, D. R., Larsen, S. S., Fouesneau, M., Kaschinski, C. B., Gieles, M., 2012, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 541, A25 [8 citations]
2012A&A...541A..25B - Accounting for stochastic fluctuations when analysing the integrated
light of star clusters. I. First systematics
Fouesneau, M., Lançon, A., 2010, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 521, A22 [58 citations]
2010A&A...521A..22F - Automatic detection and tracking of filaments for a solar feature
database
Aboudarham, J., Scholl, I., Fuller, N., Fouesneau, M., Galametz, M., Gonon, F., Maire, A., Leroy, Y., 2008, Annales Geophysicae, 26, 243 [7 citations]
2008AnGeo..26..243A