Chung-Pei Ma | Research UC Berkeley

Research Expertise and Interest

astrophysics, black hole, dark matter, cosmology, formation and evolution of galaxies, cosmic microwave background radiation

Research Description

Understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies and large scale structure in the Universe has been the central theme of my recent research. With the aid of large supercomputers, my collaborators and I have performed numerical simulations of the clustering of dark matter in various cosmological models of structure formation from the Early Universe until the present day. By comparing the simulation results with astronomical observations, constraints can be obtained on the nature of dark matter such as the mass of neutrinos and on cosmological parameters such as the density and expansion rate of the Universe. Another part of my research effort has been on the computation of the temperature variations imprinted on the cosmic microwave background radiation which provides a snapshot of the infant Universe. Other interests include theoretical particle physics and classical violin performance.

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In the News

artistic collage of galaxy and stars with blue spacetime

After 15 Years, Pulsar Timing Yields Evidence of Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background

At least one group has found evidence that the rhythms of these pulsars are affected by the stretching and squeezing of spacetime by these long-wavelength gravitational waves.

collage of the six new NAS members, two women, four men

Six Berkeley Faculty Members Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive.

collage of photos of de Pater, Klein and Ma

Three Faculty Named 2022 Fellows of American Astronomical Society

Three UC Berkeley astronomers have been named 2022 Fellows of the American Astronomical Society (AAS): Imke de Pater, Richard Klein, and Chung-Pei Ma.

Nine faculty elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Nine UC Berkeley faculty members from a wide range of disciplines have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a 240-year-old organization honoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders.

Supermassive black holes may be lurking everywhere in the universe

A near-record supermassive black hole discovered in a sparse area of the local universe indicate that these monster objects — this one equal to 17 billion suns — may be more common than once thought, according to UC Berkeley astronomers.

Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxies

UC Berkeley astronomer Chung-Pei Ma, graduate student Nicholas McConnell and colleagues have discovered the largest black holes to date ‑- two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.

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