Amalia K. Hicks, Ph.D.


Effects of Selection Bias on Cosmological Cluster Surveys
Lx-Tx for multiple comparison samples
X-ray temperature vs. luminosity. Squares designate moderate-redshift X-ray selected clusters and diamonds represent high-z optically-selected clusters. Pink and black lines show best-fitting relationships for these two samples (Hicks et al. 2008). Green triangles mark our new sample of moderate-z optically-selected clusters, indicating consistency with our high-z sample. This confirms that selection bias, not redshift evolution, is responsible for the normalization discrepancy between the two relationships. (Hicks et al. 2011, in draft).
My Picture

woman_scientist.gif Research interests:



A Very Massive High-redshift Cluster
UV Inferred Star Formation Rate vs. Central Cooling Time
Adaptively smoothed Chandra ACIS-S image of SpARCS J161325+564930 (z∼0.9) in the 0.3-7.0 keV band. A ∼1 Mpc circle (∼R500) is centered on the cluster emission, and a red cross marks the coordinate of the brightest cluster galaxy. This is one of the most massive clusters (Mvirial ∼ 1e15 Msun) ever discovered at this distance. (Ellingson, Hicks et al. 2011, in prep).

quill.gif Curriculum Vitae:



Recent Star Formation in Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs)
UV Inferred Star Formation Rate vs. Central Cooling Time
NUV inferred star formation rate vs. central cooling time (at R=20 kpc). A line shows the best BCES regress bisector fit, with a slope of -3.9+/-0.7. This correlation proves conclusively that star formation seen in cool core cluster BCGs is directly related to cooling gas in the cluster cores. (Hicks, Mushotzky & Donahue 2010).

"Missing" Baryons in High-redshift Optically-selected Clusters
Gas Mass Fractions for Moderate and High-z Samples
Histogram of core gas mass fractions (Mgas/Mtot) for eight high-redshift optically-selected (pink) and nine moderate-redshift X-ray selected clusters (blue) with 3.5 < Tx < 8 keV. A K-S test indicates that the gas mass fractions of the samples are different at >99% confidence (Hicks et al. 2008).

book.jpg Selected Preprints and Recent Papers:

  • “Detecting Star Formation in Brightest Cluster Galaxies with GALEX”, Hicks, A. K., Mushotzky M., & Donahue, M. 2010, Astrophysical Journal, 719, 1844


  • “Chandra X-ray Observations of the 0.6 < z < 1.1 Red-Sequence Cluster Survey Sample”, Hicks, A. K., Ellingson, E., Bautz, M., Cain, B., Garmire, G., Gilbank, D., Gladders, M., Hoekstra, H., & Yee, H. K. C. 2008, Astrophysical Journal, 680, 1022


  • “A Multiwavelength Analysis of the Strong Lensing Cluster RCS022434-0002.5 at z=0.778”, Hicks, A. K., Ellingson, E., Hoekstra, H., Gladders, M., Yee, H. K. C., Bautz, M., Gilbank, D., & Webb, T. 2007, Astrophysical Journal, 671, 1446


  • “Multiwavelength Mass Comparisons of the z~0.3 CNOC Cluster Sample”, Hicks, A. K., Ellingson, E., Hoekstra, H. & Yee, H. K. C. 2006, Astrophysical Journal, 652, 232


  • “Star Formation Rates in Cooling Flow Clusters: A UV Pilot Study with Archival XMM Newton Optical Monitor Data”, Hicks, A. K., & Mushotzky, R. 2005, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 635, L9

    • Additional publications


    teacher2.gif Selected Teaching/Educational Experience:

    Me and Stevi at APO
    Me and CU undergrad Stevi Fawcett at Apache Point Observatory

    Summer 2010-present:
  • Participating in the 2nd year graduate research project of Aaron Hoffer

    • Fall 2009-Spring 2010:
  • Participated in the undergraduate senior honors thesis of Ramon Steven Barthelemy

    • Spring 2008:
  • Attended a NASA Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) Workshop

    • Summer 2007:
  • Instructor of undergraduate course Astronomy 348: Introduction to Cosmology

    • Spring 2007:
  • Guest speaker at a public open house at Leander McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia

    • Additional teaching/educational experience



    Last modified June 28, 2012 at 15:17:36 EDT by hicksam
    http://www.pa.msu.edu/people/hicksam/index.062812.html