Astrophysics Research Interests

Faculty

• Professor James Stone: Astrophysical gas dynamics; star and planet formation, accretion flows, interstellar gas dynamics. Numerical algorithms for magneto-hydrodynamics and radiation hydrodynamics
• Professor Matias Zaldarriaga: Cosmology -- early universe cosmology, cosmological perturbation theory, cosmic microwave background, large-scale structure, dark matter and dark energy

Current Members

• James Beattie: will work on analytical and numerical models for how the plasma turbulence in our galaxy is driven and maintained by young supernova remnants.
• Andrea Caputo: works at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, with a particular interest in unveiling the nature of dark matter. While at IAS, Caputo plans to focus on using galactic dynamics and black hole astrophysics to study dark matter properties, as well as broader questions in fundamental physics.
• Nianyi Chen: using numerical simulations to model the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time as well as the connection between massive black holes and their host galaxies. While at IAS, she will develop simulations for characterizing the observation signatures of such evolution through different probes and scales.
• Mark Ho-Yeuk Cheung: a gravitational-wave astrophysicist. His interests include binary compact-object mergers, black hole physics, gravitational-wave lensing, and tests of general relativity.
• Biwei Dai: developing and applying physics-motivated machine learning models to learn the fundamental properties of the universe from large-scale structure datasets. He currently works on the data analysis of weak gravitational lensing at the field level.
• Alexander Dittmann: theoretical and computational astrophysics. His research often focuses on the interactions between binary systems and their accretion disks, and using X-ray observations of neutron stars to glean insight into the nature of matter at supranuclear densities.
• Job Feldbrugge: theoretical physicist specializing in cosmology and quantum gravity. He applies advanced mathematics to understand the universe's structure and evolution. His work ranges from Lorentzian path integrals in quantum cosmology and lensing of radio and gravitational waves in wave optics to the cosmic web.
• Jacob Fields: a computational astrophysicist with a background in modeling compact objects. He is particularly interested in several aspects of binary neutron star and black hole-neutron star mergers, including predicting observational signatures, exploring how different physical mechanisms (e.g., magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and instabilities) contribute to these signals, and developing improved numerical methods.
• Muryel Guolo: interested in the general aspects of black hole physics, including accretion, formation, and demographics, particularly those that can be probed through observational high-energy astrophysics and time-domain astronomy. Tidal disruption events have been the major focus of his research.
• Matthew Ho: uses machine learning techniques to maximally extract physical information from observations of the cosmic large-scale structure. At IAS, he will develop models to drive scientific discovery, focusing on constraining cosmology, characterizing galaxy astrophysics, and understanding emergent phenomena in numerical simulations.
• Ygal Klein: interested in the dynamics of planets, stars, and black holes, from hot Jupiters to gravitational-wave sources. While at IAS, Klein will research analytic theories of extreme eccentricities in hierarchical systems—a pathway to black-hole mergers and close-in planets—and orbital stability in stellar binaries.
• Bence Kocsis: addresses the dynamics of compact objects and dense stellar systems including star clusters and active galactic environments, with a strong focus on gravitational wave sources, black holes, and the astrophysical processes that drive their evolution.
• Nickolas Kokron: the formation of large-scale dark matter structures in the Universe and their connection to luminous tracers such as galaxies. He employs both numerical simulations and pen-and-paper theory in this study, with an emphasis on techniques that combine both paradigms.
• Min-Kal Lin: specializes in astrophysical fluid dynamics applied to planet formation and evolution. He will study how planets interact with turbulent protoplanetary disks.
• Andrew Mummery: the dynamics of material falling onto black holes through so-called "accretion disks". By modelling these systems in detail he uses astronomical observations and numerical simulations to learn more about the black holes in our Universe and the behaviour of fluids in extreme gravity.
• Jakob Robnik: works on developing algorithms in computational statistics and applying them to astronomical datasets. During his stay at the Institute, he intends to study the population of transiting exoplanets at the detection limit, particularly the rocky Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars.
• Javier Roulet: compact object astrophysics. To this end he develops algorithms for detecting gravitational waves from compact binary mergers, measuring their parameters and analyzing them collectively to characterize the astrophysical population.
• Mor Rozner: planet formation, stellar and planetary dynamics, and gravitational wave sources.
• Gabriela Sato-Polito: connecting new observations of the most elusive corners of the Universe with tests of fundamental physics. Her recent work explores techniques to map the matter distribution in the distant Universe, and measurements of gravitational waves by precisely timing pulsars.
• Nadine Soliman: the interplay between microphysical processes and large-scale astrophysical structures, with a focus on star and planet formation, galactic dynamics, and plasma physics. As a Hubble Fellow, Soliman will refine star formation simulations to capture the multiscale processes governing the collapse of molecular clouds, the birth of stellar clusters, and the formation of protoplanetary disks, aiming to uncover the fundamental mechanisms that drive star and planet formation.
• Thomas Spieksma: interested in black holes, gravitational waves, and their ability to probe new physics. His work explores how astrophysical environments shape black hole dynamics and their gravitational-wave signatures.
• Christopher Thompson: will investigate the behavior of high-energy plasma around neutron stars and black holes, and more broadly transient phenomena in the universe.
• Giovanni Maria Tomaselli: theoretical and astrophysical aspects of black holes, gravitational waves, and dark matter. His research has explored signatures of new ultralight particles in black hole binary inspirals.
• David Velasco-Romero: research focuses on developing and adapting high-order numerical methods for astrophysical simulations, particularly in the areas of magneto-hydrodynamics and planet-disk interactions. Velasco-Romero is also interested in high-performance computing techniques, including GPU acceleration and parallelization, to tackle complex astrophysical problems.
• Michael Vogeley: includes observational cosmology, cosmic voids, galaxy formation and evolution, statistical analysis of large data sets, active galactic nuclei, and time-series analysis. Current work includes cosmic void detection, environmental dependence of galaxy properties, and variability of AGN.
• Keming Zhang: specialize in gravitational microlensing, exoplanet demographics, and AI for Science.
• Hanjue Zhu: studies theoretical astrophysics.