Daniel Pomarède (born October 3, 1971) is a staff scientist at the Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe, CEA

Paris-Saclay University Paris-Saclay University (, ) is a combined technological research institute and public research university in Orsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technical ''grandes écoles,'' as well as several technol ...

. He co-discovered Laniakea, our home supercluster of galaxies, and Ho'oleilana, a spherical shell-like structure 1 billion light-years in diameter found in the distribution of galaxies, possibly the remnant of a Baryon Acoustic Oscillation. Specialized in data visualization and

cosmography The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-sca ...

, a branch of cosmology dedicated to mapping the Universe, he also co-authored the discoveries of the

Dipole Repeller The dipole repeller is a center of effective repulsion in the large-scale flow of galaxies in the neighborhood of the Milky Way, first detected in 2017. It is thought to represent a large supervoid, the ''Dipole Repeller Void''. The dipole ...

and of the Cold Spot Repeller, two large influential cosmic

voids Void may refer to: Science, engineering, and technology * Void (astronomy), the spaces between galaxy filaments that contain no galaxies * Void (composites), a pore that remains unoccupied in a composite material * Void, synonym for vacuum, ...

, and the discovery of the

South Pole Wall The South Pole Wall (SPW or The South Pole Wall) is a massive cosmic structure formed by a giant wall of galaxies (a galaxy filament) that extends across at least 1.37 billion light-years of space, the nearest light (and consequently part) of w ...

, a large-scale structure located in the direction of the south

celestial pole The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently directly overhead to observers at ...

beyond the southern frontiers of Laniakea. Daniel Pomarède is science editor of

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Edi ...

and

If (magazine) ''If'' was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. The magazine was moderately successful, though for most of its run it was not considered to be in the first tier of Americ ...

Biography

Daniel Pomarède graduated from the Interuniversity

Magister degree A magister degree (also magistar, female form: magistra; from , "teacher") is an academic degree used in various systems of higher education. The magister degree arose in medieval universities in Europe and was originally equal to the doctorate; ...

in Physics of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and Paris Universities (1991–1994), training in diverse research projects: experimental

atomic physics Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Atomic physics typically refers to the study of atomic structure and the interaction between atoms. It is primarily concerned wit ...

in the group led by

Marie-Anne Bouchiat Marie-Anne Bouchiat-Guiochon (born 1934) is a French experimental atomic physicist whose research has included studies of neutral currents, parity violation, and hyperpolarization. She is an honorary director of research for the French National ...

at Kastler–Brossel Laboratory, waveguide optics at the Laser Research Group,

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

supersymmetry Supersymmetry is a Theory, theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between Particle physics, particles with integer Spin (physics), spin (''bosons'') and particles with half-integer spin (''fermions''). It propo ...

at CEA Theoretical Physics Department in Saclay.

ORCID The ORCID (; Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a nonproprietary alphanumeric code to uniquely identify authors and contributors of scholarly communication. This addresses the problem that a particular author's contributions to the scien ...

br>
/ref> He served overseas as a national service scientific cooperant at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

in New York and got a Master of Science degree from the

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

, contributing to the preparation and analysis of nuclear physics experiments on the spin structure of the nucleon.

Scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

br>
/ref> In 1999, he completed his Ph.D. in particle physics and cosmology at the Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire des Hautes Energies at École Polytechnique, Ecole Polytechnique with a thesis on the search for cosmological antimatter in TeV cosmic rays, using the 10m Imaging Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescope at the F.L. Whipple Observatory in Arizona. He then went on postdoctoral positions at CEA Service de Physique des Particules in

Saclay Saclay () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is best known for the large scientific facility CEA Saclay, mostly dealing with nuclear and particle physics. Population Inhabit ...

and at the Physics Department of the University of Rome, La Sapienza, to work on the preparation of the

ATLAS Experiment ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage of ...

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

br>
/ref> Back in

, he co-founded in 2005 the COAST Computational Astrophysics Program dedicated to supercomputer simulations in astronomy, in the context of which he developed the SDvision Saclay Data Visualization software.

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/ref> As of 2010 he is applying these data visualization and analysis techniques in the field of

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

"Beyond the Milky Way, a Galactic Wall" Dennis Overbye, 10 juillet 202

/ref>

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

"Master plan of the universe revealed in new galaxy maps" Corey S. Powell, Aug. 11, 201

/ref> MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology review "New Science of Cosmography Reveals 3-D Map of the Local Universe" Emerging Technology from the arXiv, June 5, 201

/ref> Wired (magazine), Wired "Spectacular Cosmographic Maps Chart Galaxies and Superclusters in Local Universe" Adam Mann, June 12, 201

/ref>

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

"This video is a trip – through the known universe" Geoffrey Mohan, June 14, 201

/ref>

Career

Research work

Daniel Pomarède co-authored several papers in the field of

, the mapping of large-scale matter distribution and kinematics of the

observable universe The observable universe is a Ball (mathematics), spherical region of the universe consisting of all matter that can be observation, observed from Earth; the electromagnetic radiation from these astronomical object, objects has had time to reach t ...

, with the following most significant discoveries: * Discovery of the

Laniakea Supercluster The Laniakea Supercluster (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian for "open skies" or "immense heaven") or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS) is the galaxy supercluster that is home to the Milky Way and approximately 100,000 other nearby galaxies. It w ...

(2014). This structure was discovered in the velocity field inferred from the Cosmicflows-2 catalogue of peculiar velocities and distances of galaxies, where flowlines within a three-dimensional basin of attraction of typical size 160 Mpc converge on a single attractor (

the Great Attractor The Great Attractor is a region of gravitational attraction in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way galaxy, as well as about 100,000 other galaxie ...

). The volume enclosing this basin of attraction draws the frontiers of the supercluster within which is located our galaxy, the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

. The structure is named Laniakea, association of the Hawaiian terms Lani, heaven, and Akea, immense, to honor the Polynesian navigators and astronomers who used stars and oceanic currents to guide themselves in the immensity of the Pacific Ocean. This discovery makes the cover"Under the covers (Nature revealed) - 4 September 2014"
by Alex Jackson in the Nature community blog Of Schemes And Memes (5 September 2014) of Nature, September 4, 2014 edition and is accompanied by a News article, a News & Views article, an Editorial, and a Nature Video * Discovery of the

(2017). The visualization and analysis of cosmic flows revealed that the velocity field diverges from a region, presumably a large void, that is antialigned with the motion of our galaxy at 630 km/s (which causes a dipole in the temperature distribution of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation). Matter flowing from underdense to overdense regions, such an underdense region of the Universe act as effective repeller, though the only fundamental force in action is gravitation, an attractive force. The influence of this repeller (push) on our motion is found to be comparable in amplitude to that of the

Shapley supercluster The Shapley Supercluster or Shapley Concentration (SCl 124) is the largest concentration of galaxies in our universe that forms a gravitationally interacting unit, thereby pulling itself together instead of expanding with the universe. It appears ...

(pull). This discovery was published in the newly created

Nature Astronomy ''Nature Astronomy'' is a peer reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was first published in January 2017 (volume 1, issue 1), although the first content appeared online in December 2016. The editor-in-chief is Paul Woods, w ...

journal. * Discovery of the Cold Spot Repeller (2017). The analysis of the more extensive Cosmicflows-3 catalogue of galaxies revealed the presence of a major basin of repulsion located in the approximate direction of the Cold Spot observed in the map of the

Cosmic microwave background The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dar ...

temperature fluctuations. It has been hypothetized that this cold spot might be caused by large

, or supervoids. The discovery of the repeller provides increased evidence of a substantial void or succession of lesser voids, in the Cold Spot directions. * Discovery of the

(2020). The South Pole Wall is a large scale structure observed in the direction of the south celestial pole. With its heart located in the

Chamaeleon constellation Chamaeleon () is a small constellation in the deep southern sky. It is named after the chameleon, a kind of lizard. It was first defined in the 16th century. History Chamaeleon was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from ...

, this filament embraces the southernmost frontiers of the Laniakea supercluster. It is roughly the same size as the

Sloan Great Wall The Sloan Great Wall (SGW) is a cosmic structure formed by a giant wall of galaxies (a galaxy filament). Its discovery was announced from Princeton University on October 20, 2003, by J. Richard Gott III, Mario Jurić, and their colleagues, ba ...

, at half the distance. * Discovery of Ho'oleilana (2023), a spherical shell-like structure 1 billion light-years in diameter, observed in the distribution of relatively nearby galaxies. This structure is interpreted as the fossil of a Baryon Acoustic Oscillation, produced in the primordial plasma.

Public work

Videos

Cosmography studies published in scientific journals offer maps not only in the form of standard figures, but also in the form of extensive videos and interactive visualizations. Intended primarily for the specialists in the field of cosmology, these video maps turned out to be of interest to the general public. A collection of such products developed by Pomarède and fellow co-authors aggregated approximately one million views on platforms such as Vimeo, YouTube and Sketchfab: * "Cosmography of the Local Universe" is a 17 minutes long video exploring the structure of the nearby universe with a particular emphasis on the

Great Attractor The Great Attractor is a region of gravitational attraction in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way galaxy, as well as about 100,000 other galaxi ...

region, using the data from the Cosmicflows-1 catalogue of galaxies. Discover Magazine called it "The Most Amazing Map You’ll See Today (No Matter What Day It Is)"; "New Science of Cosmography Reveals 3-D Map of the Local Universe" (MIT Technology Review); "Spectacular Cosmographic Maps Chart Galaxies and Superclusters in Local Universe" (Wired); "This video is a trip – through the known universe" (Los Angeles Times); "Astronomers create stunning 3D space maps of Earth’s nearest galaxies" (METRO); "Cosmic Cartography: Here Is Your (Local) Universe" (Scientific American). * The discovery of Laniakea is described in a Nature Video "Laniakea: Our home supercluster" which collected 7.9 million view

This video uses elements from "Cosmography of the Local Universe" and from the video "The Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies
Laniakea: Our Supercluster of Galaxies
that is part of the scientific article. * "Action Dynamics of the Local Supercluster
Action Dynamics of the Local Supercluster - Download Free 3D model by Daniel Pomarède (@pomarede) [0981969]
is presumably the first 4D interactive visualization ever included in a scientific journal article. Published in the Astrophysical Journa
Action Dynamics of the Local Supercluster
this interactive animation shows the fully nonlinear gravitationally induced trajectories of a nearly complete set of galaxies, groups, and clusters in the Local Supercluster constructed in a Numerical Action Method (NAM) model constrained by data from the Cosmicflows survey and various distance indicators, with a time evolution running from the past 13.25 billion years to present. * ‘The Cosmic V-Web
The Cosmic V-Web
offers both an 11 minutes-long video and a 3D interactive visualization of a map of the

Cosmic Web The observable universe is a Ball (mathematics), spherical region of the universe consisting of all matter that can be observation, observed from Earth; the electromagnetic radiation from these astronomical object, objects has had time to reach t ...

inferred from the analysis of the velocity field, published in

The Astrophysical Journal ''The Astrophysical Journal'' (''ApJ'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of astrophysics and astronomy, established in 1895 by American astronomers George Ellery Hale and James Edward Keeler. The journal discontinued its print edition and ...

br>The Cosmic V-Web
* "Cosmicflows-3: Cosmography of the Local Void
Cosmicflows-3: Cosmography of the Local Void
is an 11 minutes long video map of the Local Void, a large underdense region of the Universe, on the outskirts of which is located our galaxy the Milky Way, and of its relation with other cosmic voids and major overdense neighbors, published in The Astrophysical Journa
Cosmicflows-3: Cosmography of the Local Void
* "The Cold-Spot Repeller
The Cold-Spot Repeller - Download Free 3D model by Daniel Pomarède (@pomarede) [eab86b4] - Sketchfab
is an interactive visualization mapping the gravitational potential field and flow obtained with the Cosmicflows-3 catalog of galaxies peculiar velocities. Published in the Astrophysical Journal Letter
Cosmicflows-3: Cold Spot Repeller?
it shows the 3D structure of flow diverging from the Cold Spot Repeller and the Dipole Repeller, and converging dominantly on the

Shapley Attractor The Shapley attractor is a massive cluster of galaxies located in Shapley Supercluster, most well known for its high density and gravitational pull. Like the Great Attractor, it is obscured by the Milky Way's galactic plane The galactic plane ...

Public Conferences

*Fleurance Astronomy Festival 201

*The Mysteries of the 21st century in Saint-Tropez 201

*The Astronomy Week 2016 in Nante
SAN : Laniakea, notre superamas de galaxies

Radio Programs

*France Culture, La Méthode Scientifique « Cosmos : les métamorphoses du vide �
Cosmos : les métamorphoses du vide
*France Culture, La Méthode Scientifique « Filaments galactiques, un univers en dentelle �
Filaments galactiques, un univers en dentelle
*France Inter, La Tête au Carré « Laniakea, un continent de galaxies �
Laniakea, un continent de galaxies du 11 septembre 2014 - France Inter
*France Inter, La Tête au Carré, La une de la scienc
Histoire des maladies infectieuses

References

External links

* Daniel Pomarède on Twitter

* Daniel Pomarède on Scholar
Daniel Pomarède - Google Scholar
* Daniel Pomarède on the Astrophysics Data System
NASA/ADS
* "Master plan of the universe revealed in new galaxy maps" NBC News (Aug. 11, 2019
Master plan of the universe revealed in new galaxy maps
by Corey S. Powell {{DEFAULTSORT:Pomarède Daniel French astrophysicists 1971 births Living people People associated with CERN