Ricardo Flores

My research interests are astrophysical cosmology and applications of quantum field theory to the physics of elementary particles. Cosmology is now a well established branch of science thanks in great part to the astounding diversification of Astronomy in the last four decades into observations covering a very broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

It is also a very exciting field of research due to its inherent intellectual appeal, and the rapid progress allowed by a steady flow of observational data. I am currently working with students on gravitational-lensing shear maps of realistic, simulated clusters of galaxies, as well as on making predictions for the expected evolution in maps of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in clusters.

My most recent work was an analysis of large samples of dark matter halos from cosmological simulations to work out their expected properties in the concordance Cold Dark Matter cosmology with dark energy, which is currently favored by a large body of observational evidence. The first work was on the predicted systematics of the shape of DM halos over a wide range in mass, and at different epochs (MNRAS 367(2006)1781).

The second work was on comparisons to X-ray observations to test the predictions (MNRAS 377(2007)883). Other relatively recent work has been on clusters of galaxies (see ApJ 532(2000)206 and ApJ 538(2000)92) and gravitational lensing (see ApJ 533(2000)194 and ApJ 535(2000)555).

On the particle physics side, my work was on some of the phenomenology expected in supersymmetric quantum field theories (see e.g. Phys. Lett. B377 (1996) 83). My work has been funded in the past by the National Science Foundation, the University of Missouri System Research Board, and by Research Awards here at UM - St. Louis. Over the years, I have collaborated on a long-term basis with scientists from around the world to carry out my research.

 

Recent Publications

M.J. Way, R.A. Flores & H. Quintana, ``Statistics of Active Galactic Nuclei in Rich Clusters Revisited'', ApJ 502 (1998) 134.

R.A. Flores, H. Quintana & M.J. Way, ``Deconstructing Abell 3266: A Major Merger in a Quiet Cluster'', ApJ 532 (2000) 206.

A.H. Maller, L. Simard, P. Guhathakurta, J. Hjorth, A.O. Jaunsen, R.A. Flores & J.R. Primack, ``Breaking the Disk/Halo Degeneracy with Gravitational Lensing'', ApJ 533 (2000) 194.

R.A. Flores, A.H. Maller & J.R. Primack, ``Arc Statistics in Clusters: Galaxy Contribution'', ApJ 535 (2000) 555.

K. Roettiger & R.A. Flores, ``A Prediction of Observable Rotation in the ICM of Abell 3266'', ApJ 538 (2000) 92.

B. Allgood, R.A. Flores, J.R. Primack, A.V. Kravtsov, R.H. Wechsler, A. Faltenbacher & J.S. Bullock, ``The Shape of Dark Matter Haloes: Dependence on Mass, Redshift, Radius and Formation'', MNRAS 367 (2006) 1781.

R.A. Flores, B. Allgood, A.V. Kravtsov, J.R. Primack, D.A. Buote, & J.S. Bullock, ``The Shape of Galaxy Cluster Dark Matter Haloes: Systematics of its Imprint on Cluster Gas and Comparison to Observations'', MNRAS 377 (2007) 883.

 

 PhD thesis (1984) on Higgs bosons.