About

Charles Baltay is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and Professor of Astronomy at Yale University. His professional affiliation is with the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, located at 217 Prospect St, New Haven, CT. The biography provided does not include specific details about his research focus, background, or key contributions.

Research topics

• Astronomy
• Physics
• Astrophysics
• Computer Science
• Geology
• Geodesy
• Optics
• Geography
• Particle physics
• Geometry
• Computer network
• Quantum mechanics

Selected publications

• An Agnostic Approach to Building Empirical Type Ia Supernova Light Curves: Evidence for Intrinsic Chromatic Flux Variation Using Nearby Supernova Factory Data

  The Astrophysical Journal · 2025-03-21

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We present a new empirical Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) model with three chromatic flux variation templates: one phase dependent and two phase independent. No underlying dust extinction model or patterns of intrinsic variability are assumed. Implemented with S tan and trained using spectrally binned Nearby Supernova Factory spectrophotometry, we examine this model's 2D, phase-independent flux variation space using two motivated basis representations. In both, the first phase-independent template captures variation that appears dust-like, while the second captures a combination of effectively intrinsic variability and second-order dust-like effects. We find that ≈13% of the modeled phase-independent flux variance is not dust-like. Previous empirical SN Ia models either assume an effective dust extinction recipe in their architecture, or only allow for a single mode of phase-independent variation. The presented results demonstrate such an approach may be insufficient, because it could “leak” noticeable intrinsic variation into phase-independent templates.

  PublisherDOI

• DESI 2024 VII: cosmological constraints from the full-shape modeling of clustering measurements

  Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · 2025-07-01 · 143 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We present cosmological results from the measurement of clustering of galaxy, quasar and Lyman-α forest tracers from the first year of observations with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI Data Release 1). We adopt the full-shape (FS) modeling of the power spectrum, including the effects of redshift-space distortions, in an analysis which has been thoroughly validated in a series of supporting papers as summarised in [1]. We combine the full-shape information with DESI's DR1 constraints from the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) of these tracers. In the flat ΛCDM cosmological model, DESI (FS+BAO), combined with a baryon density prior from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and a weak prior on the scalar spectral index, determines matter density to Ω m = 0.2962 ± 0.0095, and the amplitude of mass fluctuations to σ 8 = 0.842 ± 0.034. The addition of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data tightens these constraints to Ω m = 0.3056 ± 0.0049 and σ 8 = 0.8121 ± 0.0053, while further addition of the joint clustering and lensing analysis from the Dark Energy Survey Year-3 (DESY3) data further improves these measurements, and leads to a 0.4% determination of the Hubble constant, H 0 = (68.40 ± 0.27) km s -1 Mpc -1 . In models with a time-varying dark energy equation of state parametrised by w 0 and w a , combinations of DESI (FS+BAO) with CMB and type Ia supernovae continue to show the preference, previously found in the DESI DR1 BAO analysis, for w 0 > -1 and w a < 0 with similar levels of significance. DESI data, in combination with the CMB, improve the upper limits on the sum of the neutrino masses relative to the case when only the DR1 BAO was available, giving ∑ m ν < 0.071 eV at 95% confidence. We finally constrain deviations from general relativity represented by two modified gravity parameters. DESI (FS+BAO) data alone measure the parameter that controls the clustering of massive particles, μ 0 = 0.11 +0.45 -0.54 , in agreement with the zero value predicted by general relativity. The combination of DESI with the CMB and the clustering and lensing analysis from DESY3 constrains both modified-gravity parameters, giving μ 0 = 0.04 ± 0.22 and Σ 0 = 0.044 ± 0.047, again in agreement with general relativity.

  PublisherDOI

• DESI 2024 III: baryon acoustic oscillations from galaxies and quasars

  Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · 2025-04-01 · 226 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We present the DESI 2024 galaxy and quasar baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) measurements using over 5.7 million unique galaxy and quasar redshifts in the range 0.1 < z < 2.1. Divided by tracer type, we utilize 300,017 galaxies from the magnitude-limited Bright Galaxy Survey with 0.1 < z < 0.4, 2,138,600 Luminous Red Galaxies with 0.4 < z < 1.1, 2,432,022 Emission Line Galaxies with 0.8 < z < 1.6, and 856,652 quasars with 0.8 < z < 2.1, over a ∼ 7,500 square degree footprint. The analysis was blinded at the catalog-level to avoid confirmation bias. All fiducial choices of the BAO fitting and reconstruction methodology, as well as the size of the systematic errors, were determined on the basis of the tests with mock catalogs and the blinded data catalogs. We present several improvements to the BAO analysis pipeline, including enhancing the BAO fitting and reconstruction methods in a more physically-motivated direction, and also present results using combinations of tracers. We employ a unified BAO analysis method across all tracers. We present a re-analysis of SDSS BOSS and eBOSS results applying the improved DESI methodology and find scatter consistent with the level of the quoted SDSS theoretical systematic uncertainties. With the total effective survey volume of ∼ 18 Gpc 3 , the combined precision of the BAO measurements across the six different redshift bins is ∼0.52%, marking a 1.2-fold improvement over the previous state-of-the-art results using only first-year data. We detect the BAO in all of these six redshift bins. The highest significance of BAO detection is 9.1σ at the effective redshift of 0.93, with a constraint of 0.86% placed on the BAO scale. We find that our observed BAO scales are systematically larger than the prediction of the Planck 2018-ΛCDM at z < 0.8. We translate the results into transverse comoving distance and radial Hubble distance measurements, which are used to constrain cosmological models in our companion paper.

  PublisherDOI

• DESI 2024 IV: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the Lyman alpha forest

  Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · 2025-01-01 · 232 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We present the measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from the Lyman- α (Ly α ) forest of high-redshift quasars with the first-year dataset of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Our analysis uses over 420 000 Ly α forest spectra and their correlation with the spatial distribution of more than 700 000 quasars. An essential facet of this work is the development of a new analysis methodology on a blinded dataset. We conducted rigorous tests using synthetic data to ensure the reliability of our methodology and findings before unblinding. Additionally, we conducted multiple data splits to assess the consistency of the results and scrutinized various analysis approaches to confirm their robustness. For a given value of the sound horizon ( r d ), we measure the expansion at z eff = 2.33 with 2% precision, H ( z eff ) = ( 239.2 ± 4.8 ) (147.09 Mpc / r d ) km/s/Mpc. Similarly, we present a 2.4% measurement of the transverse comoving distance to the same redshift, D M ( z eff ) = ( 5.84 ± 0.14 ) ( r d /147.09 Mpc) Gpc. Together with other DESI BAO measurements at lower redshifts, these results are used in a companion paper to constrain cosmological parameters.

  PublisherDOI

• DESI 2024 II: sample definitions, characteristics, and two-point clustering statistics

  Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · 2025-07-01 · 66 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract We present the samples of galaxies and quasars used for DESI 2024 cosmological analyses, drawn from the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1). We describe the construction of large-scale structure (LSS) catalogs from these samples, which include matched sets of synthetic reference `randoms' and weights that account for variations in the observed density of the samples due to experimental design and varying instrument performance. We detail how we correct for variations in observational completeness, the input `target' densities due to imaging systematics, and the ability to confidently measure redshifts from DESI spectra. We then summarize how remaining uncertainties in the corrections can be translated to systematic uncertainties for particular analyses. We describe the weights added to maximize the signal-to-noise of DESI DR1 2-point clustering measurements. We detail measurement pipelines applied to the LSS catalogs that obtain 2-point clustering measurements in configuration and Fourier space. The resulting 2-point measurements depend on window functions and normalization constraints particular to each sample, and we present the corrections required to match models to the data. We compare the configuration- and Fourier-space 2-point clustering of the data samples to that recovered from simulations of DESI DR1 and find they are, generally, in statistical agreement to within 2% in the inferred real-space over-density field. The LSS catalogs, 2-point measurements, and their covariance matrices will be released publicly with DESI DR1.

  PublisherDOI

• DESI DR2 results. II. Measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmological constraints

  Physical review. D/Physical review. D. · 2025-05-23 · 326 citations

  articleOpen access

  We present baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements from more than 14 million galaxies and quasars drawn from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 2 (DR2), based on three years of operation. For cosmology inference, these galaxy measurements are combined with DESI Lyman- <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <a:mi>α</a:mi> </a:math> forest BAO results presented in a companion paper (M. Abdul-Karim , companion paper, .). The DR2 BAO results are consistent with DESI DR1 and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and their distance-redshift relationship matches those from recent compilations of supernovae (SNe) over the same redshift range. The results are well described by a flat <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <c:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</c:mi> </c:math> cold dark matter ( <f:math xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <f:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</f:mi> <f:mi>CDM</f:mi> </f:math> ) model, but the parameters preferred by BAO are in mild, <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <i:mn>2.3</i:mn> <i:mi>σ</i:mi> </i:math> tension with those determined from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), although the DESI results are consistent with the acoustic angular scale <k:math xmlns:k="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <k:msub> <k:mi>θ</k:mi> <k:mo>*</k:mo> </k:msub> </k:math> that is well measured by Planck. This tension is alleviated by dark energy with a time-evolving equation of state parametrized by <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <m:msub> <m:mi>w</m:mi> <m:mn>0</m:mn> </m:msub> </m:math> and <o:math xmlns:o="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <o:msub> <o:mi>w</o:mi> <o:mi>a</o:mi> </o:msub> </o:math> , which provides a better fit to the data, with a favored solution in the quadrant with <q:math xmlns:q="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <q:msub> <q:mi>w</q:mi> <q:mn>0</q:mn> </q:msub> <q:mo>&gt;</q:mo> <q:mo>−</q:mo> <q:mn>1</q:mn> </q:math> and <s:math xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <s:msub> <s:mi>w</s:mi> <s:mi>a</s:mi> </s:msub> <s:mo>&lt;</s:mo> <s:mn>0</s:mn> </s:math> . This solution is preferred over <u:math xmlns:u="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <u:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</u:mi> <u:mi>CDM</u:mi> </u:math> at <x:math xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <x:mn>3.1</x:mn> <x:mi>σ</x:mi> </x:math> for the combination of DESI BAO and CMB data. When also including SNe, the preference for a dynamical dark energy model over <z:math xmlns:z="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <z:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</z:mi> <z:mi>CDM</z:mi> </z:math> ranges from <cb:math xmlns:cb="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <cb:mn>2.8</cb:mn> <cb:mo>−</cb:mo> <cb:mn>4.2</cb:mn> <cb:mi>σ</cb:mi> </cb:math> depending on which SNe sample is used. We present evidence from other data combinations which also favor the same behavior at high significance. From the combination of DESI and CMB we derive 95% upper limits on the sum of neutrino masses, finding <eb:math xmlns:eb="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <eb:mo>∑</eb:mo> <eb:msub> <eb:mi>m</eb:mi> <eb:mi>ν</eb:mi> </eb:msub> <eb:mo>&lt;</eb:mo> <eb:mn>0.064</eb:mn> <eb:mtext> </eb:mtext> <eb:mtext> </eb:mtext> <eb:mi>eV</eb:mi> </eb:math> assuming <gb:math xmlns:gb="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <gb:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</gb:mi> <gb:mi>CDM</gb:mi> </gb:math> and <jb:math xmlns:jb="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <jb:mo>∑</jb:mo> <jb:msub> <jb:mi>m</jb:mi> <jb:mi>ν</jb:mi> </jb:msub> <jb:mo>&lt;</jb:mo> <jb:mn>0.16</jb:mn> <jb:mtext> </jb:mtext> <jb:mtext> </jb:mtext> <jb:mi>eV</jb:mi> </jb:math> in the <lb:math xmlns:lb="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <lb:msub> <lb:mi>w</lb:mi> <lb:mn>0</lb:mn> </lb:msub> <lb:msub> <lb:mi>w</lb:mi> <lb:mi>a</lb:mi> </lb:msub> </lb:math> model. Unless there is an unknown systematic error associated with one or more datasets, it is clear that <nb:math xmlns:nb="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <nb:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</nb:mi> <nb:mi>CDM</nb:mi> </nb:math> is being challenged by the combination of DESI BAO with other measurements and that dynamical dark energy offers a possible solution.

  PublisherDOI

• The La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey

  Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · 2025-09-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We present the La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey (LS4), a new wide-field, time-domain survey to be conducted with the 1 m ESO Schmidt telescope. The 268 megapixel LS4 camera mosaics 32 2k × 4k fully depleted CCDs, providing a ∼20 deg 2 field of view with 1 ″ pixel −1 resolution. The LS4 camera will have excellent performance at longer wavelengths: in a standard 45 s exposure the expected 5 σ limiting magnitudes in g , i , z are ∼21.5, ∼20.9, and ∼20.3 mag (AB), respectively. The telescope design requires a novel filter holder that fixes different bandpasses over each quadrant of the detector. Two quadrants will have i band, while the other two will be g and z band with color information obtained by dithering targets across the different quadrants. The majority (90%) of the observing time will be used to conduct a public survey that monitors the extragalactic sky at both moderate (3 days) and high (1 day) cadence, as well as focused observations within the Galactic plane and bulge. Alerts from the public survey will be broadcast to the community via established alert brokers. LS4 will run concurrently with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The combination of LS4+LSST will enable detailed holistic monitoring of many nearby transients: high-cadence LS4 observations will resolve the initial rise and peak of the light curve while less-frequent but deeper observations by LSST will characterize the years before and after explosion. Here, we summarize the primary science objectives of LS4 including microlensing events in the Galaxy, extragalactic transients powered by massive black holes or stellar explosions, the search for electromagnetic counterparts to multi-messenger events, and supernova cosmology.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• DESI 2024 VI: cosmological constraints from the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2025 · 897 citations

  • Physics
  • Astrophysics
  • Particle physics

  Abstract We present cosmological results from the measurement of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in galaxy, quasar and Lyman- α forest tracers from the first year of observations from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), to be released in the DESI Data Release 1. DESI BAO provide robust measurements of the transverse comoving distance and Hubble rate, or their combination, relative to the sound horizon, in seven redshift bins from over 6 million extragalactic objects in the redshift range 0.1 &lt; z &lt; 4.2. To mitigate confirmation bias, a blind analysis was implemented to measure the BAO scales. DESI BAO data alone are consistent with the standard flat ΛCDM cosmological model with a matter density Ω m =0.295±0.015. Paired with a baryon density prior from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the robustly measured acoustic angular scale from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), DESI requires H 0 =(68.52±0.62) km s -1 Mpc -1 . In conjunction with CMB anisotropies from Planck and CMB lensing data from Planck and ACT, we find Ω m =0.307± 0.005 and H 0 =(67.97±0.38) km s -1 Mpc -1 . Extending the baseline model with a constant dark energy equation of state parameter w , DESI BAO alone require w =-0.99 +0.15 -0.13 . In models with a time-varying dark energy equation of state parametrised by w 0 and w a , combinations of DESI with CMB or with type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) individually prefer w 0 &gt; -1 and w a &lt; 0. This preference is 2.6 σ for the DESI+CMB combination, and persists or grows when SN Ia are added in, giving results discrepant with the ΛCDM model at the 2.5 σ , 3.5 σ or 3.9 σ levels for the addition of the Pantheon+, Union3, or DES-SN5YR supernova datasets respectively. For the flat ΛCDM model with the sum of neutrino mass ∑ m ν free, combining the DESI and CMB data yields an upper limit ∑ m ν &lt; 0.072 (0.113) eV at 95% confidence for a ∑ m ν &gt; 0 (∑ m ν &gt; 0.059) eV prior. These neutrino-mass constraints are substantially relaxed if the background dynamics are allowed to deviate from flat ΛCDM.

  Publisher

• The La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey

  ArXiv.org · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  We present the La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey (LS4), a new wide-field, time-domain survey to be conducted with the 1 m ESO Schmidt telescope. The 268 megapixel LS4 camera mosaics 32 2k$\times$4k fully depleted CCDs, providing a $\sim$20 deg$^2$ field of view with $1''$ pixel$^{-1}$ resolution. The LS4 camera will have excellent performance at longer wavelengths: in a standard 45 s exposure the expected 5$σ$ limiting magnitudes in $g$, $i$, $z$ are $\sim$21.5, $\sim$20.9, and $\sim$20.3 mag (AB), respectively. The telescope design requires a novel filter holder that fixes different bandpasses over each quadrant of the detector. Two quadrants will have $i$ band, while the other two will be $g$ and $z$ band and color information will be obtained by dithering targets across the different quadrants. The majority (90%) of the observing time will be used to conduct a public survey that monitors the extragalactic sky at both moderate (3 d) and high (1 d) cadence, as well as focused observations within the Galactic bulge and plane. Alerts from the public survey will be broadcast to the community via established alert brokers. LS4 will run concurrently with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The combination of LS4+LSST will enable detailed holistic monitoring of many nearby transients: high-cadence LS4 observations will resolve the initial rise and peak of the light curve while less-frequent but deeper observations by LSST will characterize the years before and after explosion. Here, we summarize the primary science objectives of LS4 including microlensing events in the Galaxy, extragalactic transients, the search for electromagnetic counterparts to multi-messenger events, and cosmology.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• DESI 2024 V: Full-Shape galaxy clustering from galaxies and quasars

  Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · 2025-09-01 · 53 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We present the measurements and cosmological implications of the galaxy two-point clustering using over 4.7 million unique galaxy and quasar redshifts in the range 0.1 &lt; z &lt; 2.1 divided into six redshift bins over a ∼ 7,500 square degree footprint, from the first year of observations with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI Data Release 1). By fitting the full power spectrum, we extend previous DESI DR1 baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements to include redshift-space distortions and signals from the matter-radiation equality scale. For the first time, this Full-Shape analysis is blinded at the catalogue-level to avoid confirmation bias and the systematic errors are accounted for at the two-point clustering level, which automatically propagates them into any cosmological parameter. When analysing the data in terms of compressed model-agnostic variables, we obtain a combined precision of 4.7% on the amplitude of the redshift space distortion (RSD) signal reaching a similar precision with just one year of DESI data than with twenty years of observation from the previous generation survey. We also analyse the data to directly constrain the cosmological parameters within the ΛCDM model using perturbation theory and combine this information with the reconstructed DESI DR1 galaxy BAO. Using a Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Gaussian prior on the baryon density parameter, ω b , and a weak Gaussian prior on the spectral index, n s , we constrain the matter density is Ω m = 0.296±0.010 and the Hubble constant H 0 = (68.63 ± 0.79)[km s -1 Mpc -1 ]. Additionally, we measure the amplitude of clustering σ 8 = 0.841±0.034. The DESI DR1 galaxy clustering results are in agreement with the ΛCDM model based on general relativity with parameters consistent with those from Planck . The cosmological interpretation of these results in combination with DESI DR1 Ly-α forest data and external datasets are presented in the companion paper [1].

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: The Palomar- QUEST Survey

  NSF · $868k · 2004–2010

Frequent coauthors

• P. Antilogus

  Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies

  388 shared

• S. Bongard

  Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies

  377 shared

• R. Pain

  Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules

  374 shared

• D. Rabinowitz

  Yale University

  373 shared

• É. Gangler

  363 shared

• Y. Copin

  Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon

  349 shared

• P. Nugent

  344 shared

• G. Smadja

  Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1

  320 shared

Education

• PhD, Physics

  Yale University

  1963