» info
at UT4/VLT, Cerro Paranal
Istvan Dekany, PhD
astronomer, data scientist
VVV Survey Science Team
Millennium Institute for Astrophysics,
Santiago, Chile
Institute of Astrophysics,
P. Univ. Católica de Chile
contact
e-mail: idekany 
astro.puc.cl
phone: +56 223544940
fax: +56 223544948
education
MSc in astronomy
PhD in physics
keywords
Scientific:
Galactic archeology, resolved stellar populations, IR and optical photometry, stellar pulsation and evolution
Technical:
time-series analysis, large databases, big data analysis, high-performance scientific computing, image processing
introduction
I'm a postdoctoral fellow at the Millennium Institute for Astrophysics, based at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. I'm working as an astronomer and data scientist for the VVV Survey. My job is to map the Milky Way in 3 dimensions, with the aim of understanding its detailed structure and the physics behind it, how our Galaxy formed and evolved. I'm also responsible for the technical work of variability analysis of the VVV Survey's near-infrared photometry, supplying science-ready data products. This consists of analyzing about a billion time-series, a lot of data, which form the main basis of my research, and of many interesting discoveries. I also do observations for my science with a large variety of telescopes in Chile, including the VLT and the Magellan telescopes.
top recent publications
The VVV Survey reveals classical Cepheids tracing a young and thin stellar disk across the Galaxy's bulge
Dékány, I.; Minniti, D; Majaess, D.; Zoccali, M.; Hajdu, G.; Alonso-Gacía, J; Catelan, M.; Gieren, W.; Borissova, J.
2015, ApJ, 812, L29,
astro-ph/1509.08402
New RR Lyrae variables in binary systems
Hajdu, G.; Catelan, M.; Jurcsik, J.; Dékány, I.; Drake, A. J.; Marquette, J.-B.
2015, MNRAS, 449, L113,
astro-ph/1502.01318
Discovery of a Pair of Classical Cepheids in an Invisible Cluster Beyond the Galactic Bulge
Dékány, I.; Minniti, D.; Hajdu, G.; Alonso-García, J.; Hempel, M.; Palma, T.;
Catelan, M.; Gieren, W.; Majaess, D.
2015, ApJ, 799, L11,
astro-ph/1412.8658
Variable stars in the VVV globular clusters. I. 2MASS-GC02 and Terzan10
Alonso-García, J.; Dékány, I.; Catelan, M.; Contreras R.R.; Gran, F.; Amigo, P.; Leyton, P.; Minniti, D.
2015, AJ, 149, 99,
astro-ph/1411.1696v2
The WFCAM Multi-wavelength Variable Star Catalog
Ferreira Lopes, C. E.; Dékány, I.; Catelan, M.; Cross, N. J. G.; Angeloni, R.; Leão, I. C.; De Medeiros, J. R.
2015, A&A 573, 100,
astro-ph/1408.4137
Milky Way demographics with the VVV survey. III.
Evidence for a great dark lane in the 157 million star bulge color-magnitude diagram
Minniti, D.; Saito, R. K.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Zoccali, M.; Rejkuba, M.; Alonso-Garcia, J.;
Benjamin, R.; Catelan, M.; Dékány, I.; Emerson, J. P.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, P. W.; Schultheis, M.
2014, A&A 571, 91,
astro-ph/1409.5836
The VVV Templates Project Towards an automated classification of VVV light-curves. I.
Building a database of stellar variability in the near-infrared
Angeloni, R.; Contreras Ramos, R.; Catelan, M.; Dékány, I.; and 49 co-authors
2014, A&A 567, 100,
astro-ph/1405.4517
VVV Survey Near-infrared Photometry of Known Bulge RR Lyrae Stars:
The Distance to the Galactic Center and Absence of a Barred Distribution of the Metal-poor Population
Dékány, I.; Minniti, D.; Catelan, M.; Zoccali, M.; Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Gonzalez, O. A.
2013, ApJ 776, L19,
astro-ph/1309.5933
Dékány, I.; Minniti, D; Majaess, D.; Zoccali, M.; Hajdu, G.; Alonso-Gacía, J; Catelan, M.; Gieren, W.; Borissova, J.
2015, ApJ, 812, L29, astro-ph/1509.08402
New RR Lyrae variables in binary systems
Hajdu, G.; Catelan, M.; Jurcsik, J.; Dékány, I.; Drake, A. J.; Marquette, J.-B.
2015, MNRAS, 449, L113, astro-ph/1502.01318
Discovery of a Pair of Classical Cepheids in an Invisible Cluster Beyond the Galactic Bulge
Dékány, I.; Minniti, D.; Hajdu, G.; Alonso-García, J.; Hempel, M.; Palma, T.; Catelan, M.; Gieren, W.; Majaess, D.
2015, ApJ, 799, L11, astro-ph/1412.8658
Variable stars in the VVV globular clusters. I. 2MASS-GC02 and Terzan10
Alonso-García, J.; Dékány, I.; Catelan, M.; Contreras R.R.; Gran, F.; Amigo, P.; Leyton, P.; Minniti, D.
2015, AJ, 149, 99, astro-ph/1411.1696v2
The WFCAM Multi-wavelength Variable Star Catalog
Ferreira Lopes, C. E.; Dékány, I.; Catelan, M.; Cross, N. J. G.; Angeloni, R.; Leão, I. C.; De Medeiros, J. R.
2015, A&A 573, 100, astro-ph/1408.4137
Milky Way demographics with the VVV survey. III.
Evidence for a great dark lane in the 157 million star bulge color-magnitude diagram
Minniti, D.; Saito, R. K.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Zoccali, M.; Rejkuba, M.; Alonso-Garcia, J.; Benjamin, R.; Catelan, M.; Dékány, I.; Emerson, J. P.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, P. W.; Schultheis, M.
2014, A&A 571, 91, astro-ph/1409.5836
The VVV Templates Project Towards an automated classification of VVV light-curves. I.
Building a database of stellar variability in the near-infrared
Angeloni, R.; Contreras Ramos, R.; Catelan, M.; Dékány, I.; and 49 co-authors
2014, A&A 567, 100, astro-ph/1405.4517
VVV Survey Near-infrared Photometry of Known Bulge RR Lyrae Stars:
The Distance to the Galactic Center and Absence of a Barred Distribution of the Metal-poor Population
Dékány, I.; Minniti, D.; Catelan, M.; Zoccali, M.; Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Gonzalez, O. A.
2013, ApJ 776, L19, astro-ph/1309.5933