I am interested in the galaxy-halo connection. This means I want to understand what types of galaxies are likely to live inside of a dark matter halo with given properties. We already know that there is a correlation between the mass of a galaxy and the mass of its host halo. Additionally, recent evidence has pointed towards a secondary correlation between the star formation rate of the galaxy and the mass accretion rate of the halo. A more complete understanding of this relationship would have profound implications on our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

My research aims to answer what types of galaxy surveys we need to be able to constrain galaxy-halo connection models. Assuming a model, I generate samples of mock galaxies over dark matter simulations. I then conduct mock surveys, and vary several parameters, such as the area, depth, threshold, and completeness fraction of the survey. By comparing several statistics from these mock observations, I can deduce which ones would be the most useful to our goal of learning about the galaxy-halo connection.