Astrophysics Seminars

Pulsars are highly magnetized rotating neutron stars known for their periodic bursts of radio emission. Decades of astronomical observations revealed that pulsars produce non-thermal radiation in all energy bands, from radio to gamma rays, covering...

Galaxies are at the core of nearly all modern astrophysical studies. They serve as essential cosmological probes, tracing the structure of the universe, while also providing the stage on which stars form and black holes grow. Despite their...

From the collapse of molecular clouds into stars to spectacular galactic mergers, binary systems form on many scales across the universe. Interactions between binaries and their environments can sculpt the stellar populations we observe today, alter...

The life cycles of star clusters are an integral part of the formation of galaxies and their black hole populations.   In these dense stellar environments, stars and black holes participate in complicated dynamical interactions that can create many...

Superradiant instabilities may create clouds of ultralight bosons around rotating black holes, forming so-called "gravitational atoms". In this talk, I will review a series of papers that study the effects of a binary companion’s presence. The...

I’ll discuss an old technique called intensity interferometry, pioneered by Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) that allows us to achieve sub-microarcsecond angular resolution using ordinary ground-based optical telescopes observing visible light.  This...

The following statements are often made about high-redshift Lyman Alpha Emitting (LAE) galaxies:  

1.  They are young, low-dust galaxies undergoing initial bursts of star formation.  

2.  Due to resonant scattering, Lyman alpha photons experience much...

In this talk I will review the current state of and future prospects for exoplanet demographics. I will walk through the latest understanding of the frequency of Earth-like planets from Kepler, and their implications for NASA’s next flagship mission...

Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies present unsolved theoretical challenges for our understanding of high-energy astrophysics, gravity and gravitational waves, star and galaxy formation, and space plasma physics. For decades, our...

More than a century ago, Albert Einstein presented his general theory of gravitation. One of the predictions of this theory is that not only particles and objects with mass, but also the quanta of light, photons, are tied to the curvature of space...