Astrophysics Seminars

Mar
26
2026

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Numerical Modeling of Plasmas Across Fluid and Kinetic Regimes
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Plasmas exhibit a wide range of behaviors across fluid and kinetic regimes, governing key processes in diverse laboratory, space, and astrophysical environments. Understanding these systems requires numerical models with varying levels of physical...

Mar
12
2026

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Which Microphysics Matters? The Case for Dust Dynamics
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Abstract: Numerical simulations of galaxies and the interstellar medium are now reaching resolutions where small-scale physical processes can be resolved directly. This raises a natural question: which pieces of microphysics must be modeled...

Mar
05
2026

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Improving Neutron Star Mergers with Advanced Computational Methods
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Continual improvements to our observational capabilities promise a wealth of data from binary neutron star systems in the coming years and decades, which will find broad applications across several fields of physics. However, the current generation...

Feb
26
2026

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Hierarchical few body problem at High Eccentricity is a simple pendulum
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

I will present and discuss new analytical solutions to high eccentricity perturbed Keplerian orbits undergoing Kozai-Lidov oscillations. In particular, I will show that the complex dynamics of hierarchical few body stellar systems - can be reduced...

Feb
19
2026

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Rethinking about gravitational instability as a planet formation scenario
Cristiano Longarini
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

The ubiquity of substructures in protoplanetary discs has opened debate regarding the alignment of planet formation timescales with protostellar disc evolution. Under the hypothesis of the planetary interpretation, a robust conclusion is that a...

Feb
12
2026

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Theory for innovative cosmological tests of dark matter-baryon interactions
Yacine Ali-Haimoud
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Among many things, dark matter could be made of new fundamental or composite particles, which may feebly interact with nuclei or electrons (“baryons”), as well as with themselves. Cosmological observables are a promising avenue to test such...

Feb
05
2026

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Dynamics of stellar binaries in nuclear star clusters
Mark Dodici
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Binary stars in the central parsecs of galaxies are involved in the production of several modern astronomical phenomena, including hypervelocity stars, repeating partial tidal disruption events, and dust-enshrouded objects around Sgr A*. I present...

Dec
11
2025

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Are We There Yet? First-principles Modeling of Multimessenger Signals in the Plasma Universe
Bart Ripperda
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Astrophysical black holes are surrounded by accretion disks, jets, magnetospheres, and coronae consisting of magnetized relativistic plasma. They produce observable multi wavelength and multi messenger signals from near the event horizon and it is...

Dec
04
2025

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Weak gravitational lensing and cosmology
Bhuvnesh Jain
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

I will motivate current work in weak gravitational lensing with cosmic and astrophysical puzzles. The evolution of dark energy, the growth of structure and feedback from supermassive black holes are some of the debated questions. I will describe how...