Farhanul Hasan
Astronomy PhD Candidate
New Mexico State University
Email: farhasan-at-nmsu.edu
Welcome to my website! I am a PhD candidate in the Astronomy department at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM. I study how the evolution of galaxies is affected by their environment, including their surrounding gaseous ecosystems, and the large-scale cosmic web, from both observational and theoretical standpoints. I am interested in data visualization and analytics as well. I am currently working with Prof. Joe Burchett at NMSU and on track to graduate in summer 2024. I am the PI of a Hubble Space Telescope Archival Research Grant to study the diffuse gas in various cosmic environments using quasar absorption lines.
Research Interests
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The Cosmic Web and Galaxy Evolution: On very large spatial scales (>millions of light years), the universe looks like a network of interconnected spiderwebs, which we call the Cosmic Web, which consists of diffuse filaments, dense nodes, and mostly empty voids. I am interested in how galaxies are influenced by this network. Currently, I am working on how star formation in galaxies is impacted by their cosmic web environment in theoretical simulations, and what that means for our observable universe. Our group is inspired by the slime mold organism in modeling the cosmic web.
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Galactic ecosystems and Galaxy Evolution: On smaller (but still really large!) scales, galaxies are surrounded by vast gaseous ecosystems - sometimes referred to as the Circumgalactic Medium (CGM) - through which gas flows into galaxies from the cosmic web. This gas fuels star formation and black hole activity near the centrals regions of the galaxy which eventually blows gas out to the CGM or even the Intergalactic Medium (IGM). I study how gas is exchanged between galaxies and these surrounding ecosystems, which plays a huge role in how galaxies grow across cosmic time.
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Quasar Absorption Spectroscopy: One of the most common ways of observing these tenuous gaseous ecosystems is absorption spectroscopy, where absorption features are imprinted in the spectrum of a bright background light source such as a quasar. In my research, I sometimes use absorption spectra to study the diffuse gas surrounding galaxies and uncover the story it tells of galaxy evolution.
The cosmic web structure in the IllustrisTNG simulations - visualized with CosmoVis
A gaseous ecosystem surrounding a galaxy; the gas is usually observed via absorption features in the spectra of background light sources (the "star" symbol here)
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​Data Visualization: I am interested in data analytics, and finding creative ways to visualize scientific data. Currently, I am the science development lead of CosmoVis, which is an open-source 3D data visualization and analysis software for large, state-of-the-art cosmological simulations. I am working alongside an interdisciplinary group of researchers in astrophysics and computational media.
Publications
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Hasan et al. (2023b): "Filaments of The Slime Mold Cosmic Web And How They Affect Galaxy Evolution" submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. Nov 2023. ArXiV: 2311.01443
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Hasan et al. (2023a): "The Evolving Effect Of Cosmic Web Environment On Galaxy Quenching" The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 950, Number 2, Page 114, Jun 2023.
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Hasan et al. (2022): "Evolution of CIV Absorbers. II. Where Does CIV Live?" The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 924, Number 1, Page 12, Jan 2022.
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Hasan et al. (2020): "Evolution of CIV Absorbers. I. The Cosmic Incidence" The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 904, Number 1, Page 44, Nov 2020.
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Hasan & Crocker (2019): "Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes in the local universe I: The Velocity Dispersion Function" submitted to The Astronomical Journal. Apr 2019. ArXiV: 1904.00486