Astrophysics Seminars

Particularly with the advent of Gaia, we can use Galactic SNRs as new probes of supernova progenitors.  In particular, we can constrain how many were binaries or triples at death and how
many of these systems survived.  We can also isolate the...

The giant impact theory for the formation of the Moon suggests that a planetary impactor struck the proto-Earth in an oblique collision shortly after the formation of the solar system. This collision produces liquid and vapor debris, drawn from the...

Understanding of the role magnetic field in astrophysical environments is essential for many brunches of astrophysical research. The knowledge of magnetic field and polarized radiation that this field induces is important for the ongoing search for...

In this talk I will discuss two undetected populations of black holes. In the faraway Universe, the first lensed z > 6 quasar (J0439+1634) was recently discovered. We predicted that the observed population of quasars should contain many mildly...

Recent radio observations of inflowing and outflowing plasma in the vicinity of supermassive black holes are linked to simple phenomenological models via general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations through a methodology called "Observing"...

One of the best laboratories to study strong-field gravity is the inner 100s of kilometers around black holes and neutron stars in binary systems with low-mass stars like our Sun. The X-ray light curves of these systems show variability on...

Recent advances in large-scale structure (LSS) theory have opened up new avenues for probing fundamental physics with the cosmic web. Future galaxy surveys will soon map the Universe with unprecedented sub-percent precision. I will present tools...

In the Solar system, the planets follow orbits that are nearly aligned with the Sun's equatorial plane. What about planets around other stars? Many techniques are available to measure the obliquities of planet-hosting stars, ranging from an effect...

A better understanding of the complex galaxy formation, in particular the co-evolution of galaxies and dark matter halos, will directly enable us to translate astrophysical observations into solid constraints on the physical properties of dark...

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short duration (~ms), very bright, radio transients. Their detection in 2007 was a major unexpected discovery in astronomy in decades. Hunting for FRBs and measuring their physical properties have become one of the...