Astrophysics

Andy Mummery, John N. Bahcall Fellow (2025–30) in the School of Natural Sciences, might have had the talent for professional cricket, but fortunately for the field of astrophysics, he didn’t quite have the attention span. During his IAS Membership, he is applying his "wandering curiosity" to understanding tidal disruption events, all while preparing for an impending explosion of new data.

In a collaboration born from overlapping terms in the School of Natural Sciences, Elena Murchikova, Member (2018–22) and frequent Visitor, and Kailash Sahu, Member (2022–23), have challenged prevailing assumptions about the visibility of isolated black holes.

Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member (2022–25) in the School of Natural Sciences, who led a team to the discovery of a trans-Neptunian object potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, shares—in his own words—a reflection on how the new object was identified.

What happens when a planet plows through the swirling disk of gas and dust that surrounds a young star? Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study Member Callum W. Fairbairn and NASA Einstein Fellow Alexander Dittmann, both from the School of Natural Sciences, have shed light on this, broadening our understanding of planets on elliptical, or “eccentric,” orbits.

Nadine Soliman, NASA Hubble Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences, studies star and planet formation. At IAS, she’ll examine and simulate processes such as the collapse of molecular clouds, the birth of stellar clusters, and the formation of protoplanetary disks—all as case studies for larger questions about the interplay between microphysical processes and large-scale astrophysical structures.

Chris Hamilton, John N. Bahcall Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences (2021–26), describes how the Institute’s intense academic environment has helped him focus and accelerate his research, and the benefits of receiving rapid feedback from colleagues like Professor Emeritus Scott Tremaine.

Giovanni Maria Tomaselli, Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences (2024–27), introduces the enigmatic substance of dark matter, which forms the focus of his current research and of lively discussions during Astro Coffee meetings.

Giovanni Maria Tomaselli, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, delves into the cosmic mystery of dark matter—the invisible substance that comprises 85 percent of the universe. He introduces three of the main candidates for dark matter's composition and discusses his own innovative insights into how such matter might interact with binary black hole pairs.

Why do collisionless plasmas like the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles that flows away from the Sun, exhibit a universal "non-thermal tail"? Uddipan Banik, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has proposed a fundamental, first-principles explanation for this phenomenon.

Building on analogs with plasma physics, John N. Bahcall Fellow Chris Hamilton (2021–26), visiting graduate student Shaunak Modak (2023–26), and Professor Emeritus Scott Tremaine have developed a new theoretical framework for understanding galactic disks.