Mariangela Bernardi

Mariangela Bernardi is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. Early-type galaxies are her main research interest.

She assembled, maintained and analyzed the ENEAR database used for peculiar velocity studies; it is still the only all-sky early-type galaxy database. She demonstrated that chemical compositions of early-type galaxies in the ENEAR sample show little dependence on environment. She also made the first direct measurements of the distributions of galaxy sizes, masses and velocity dispersions in the SDSS database; analyzed the Fundamental Plane at z ~ 0.1; and demonstrated that velocity dispersion is the key physical parameter which determines early-type galaxy properties. She has published work on the IGM and quasars at intermediate and high redshift and is acknowledged as an SDSS builder.

At Penn, she used the SDSS to assemble two different candidate samples for the most massive galaxies in the Universe; one sample contains the most luminous galaxies (usually called Brightest Cluster Galaxies) and the other contains galaxies with extremely large velocity dispersions. Curiously, BCGs appear to be slightly less dense than average, whereas the other sample contains some of the densest galaxies in the Universe. Both samples constrain the latest galaxy formation models. The most massive galaxies are expected to contain the most massive black holes in the Universe; she has shown how some correlations traced by black hole hosts are different from those defined by the bulk of the SDSS early-type galaxy population.

Her research program on galaxy formation and evolution complements the Penn astrophysics research program, whose main focus is on issues related to dark matter and dark energy. Her research will benefit from Penn's membership in the Dark-Energy Survey (DES) and the Large-Scale Synoptic Telescope (LSST).

GALEX Cycle 13 -- (2007 -- 2009)
"GALEX Survey of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Strip"
PI: R. Jimenez, CoI: M. Bernardi et al.

HST Cycle 14 Snapshot Survey (40 orbits) -- (2005 -- 2008)
"The Most Massive Galaxies in the Universe: Color-Gradients and Texture"
PI: M. Bernardi

NASA ADP/LTSA04-0000-0102 -- (2005--2009)
"A Search for and Analysis of the Most Massive Galaxies"
PI: M. Bernardi

HST Cycle 13 Snapshot Survey (70 orbits) --  (2005 -- 2007)
"The Most Massive Galaxies in the Universe: Double Trouble?"
PI: M. Bernardi, CoI: R. K. Sheth, K. Gebhardt, R. C. Nichol

SDSS: Spectroscopic pipeline Builder

European Southern Observatory:  Studentship  (Oct 1996 - Apr 1999)

• Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania (2005-Present)
• Associate Researcher in Astrophysics, University of Pittsburgh (2004)
• Associate Researcher in Astrophysics, Carnegie Mellon University (2002-04)
• Associate Researcher in Astrophysics, University of Chicago (2000-02)

• The sigma - L correlation in Nearby Early-Type Galaxies, Bernardi, M. 2007, AJ, 133, 1954—1961
• Selection bias in the M_bh-sigma and M_bh-L correlations and its consequences, Bernardi, M., Sheth, R. K., Tundo, E., & Hyde, J. B. 2007, ApJ, 660, 267—275
• On the inconsistency between the black hole mass function inferred from M_bh-sigma and M_bh-L correlations, Tundo, E., Bernardi, M., Hyde, J. B., Sheth, R. K., & Pizzella, A. 2007, ApJ, 663, 53—60
• The luminosities, sizes and velocity dispersions of Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Implications for formation history, Bernardi, M., Hyde, J. B., Sheth, R. K., Miller, C. J., & Nichol, R. C. 2007, AJ, 133, 1741—1755
• A search for the most massive galaxies: Double Trouble?, Bernardi, M., Sheth, R. K., Nichol, R. C. et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 2018—2034
• Evolution and environment of early-type galaxies, Bernardi, M., Nichol, R. C., Sheth, R. K., Miller, C. J. et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 1288—1317
• Colors, magnitudes and velocity dispersions in early-type galaxies: Implications for galaxy ages and metallicities, Bernardi, M.,  Sheth, R. K., Nichol, R. C. et al. 2005, AJ, 129, 61
• Early-type galaxies in the SDSS. III. The Fundamental Plane, Bernardi, M., Sheth, R. K., Annis J. et al. 2003, AJ, 125, 1866—1881
• Redshift-distance Survey of Early-type Galaxies. II. The Dn-sigma Relation, Bernardi, M., Alonso, M. V., da Costa, L. N., Willmer, C. N. A., Wegner, G., Pellegrini, P. S., Rite, C., & Maia, M. A. G. 2002, AJ, 123, 2159—2182
• Cluster versus Field Elliptical Galaxies and Clues on Their Formation, Bernardi, M., Renzini, A., da Costa, L. N., Wegner, G., Alonso, M. V., Pellegrini, P. S., Rite, C., & Willmer, C. N. A. 1998, ApJ Letters, 508, 143--146