Joint IAS Princeton University Astrophysics Colloquium

Abstract: Astronomy's current model of galaxy evolution is built on a foundation of hierarchical growth, in which small galaxies merge together to form larger ones.  In addition to the simple accrual of mass, this merging process is predicted to...

Abstract: The first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, created by the merger of black holes more than a billion years ago, was followed by many other signals from black holes. In 2017, the merger of neutron stars was detected by LIGO and...

The origin of extraterrestrial energetic particles ("cosmic rays") has puzzled scientists since the pioneering discovery by Victor Hess in 1912. In the last decade, however, modern supercomputers and multi-wavelength observations have opened new...

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) should be common in galactic nuclei as a result of frequent galaxy mergers. Yet they remain undetectable, especially during the final stage of their evolution. At this stage, SMBHBs are expected to emit...

Growth structure probes have long been consider an indispensable tool for the study of dark energy. In this talk, I will present an analysis of the abundance of DES galaxy clusters to argue against the dynamical dark energy interpretation of the...

With the advent of JWST, interpreting unprecedented observations of diverse exoplanet atmospheres requires a fundamental understanding of photochemistry, atmospheric dynamics, and aerosol microphysics. In this talk, I will demonstrate how modeling...

The GRAVITY experiment at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has fundamentally redefined the landscape of high-angular-resolution astronomy. By delivering routine milli-arcsecond imaging, a thousandfold increase in sensitivity, and micro...

The synthesis of heavy elements in the cosmos has proven to be more complex than originally thought. With advancements in observational astronomy and the addition of new signals from gravitational waves and pre-solar grains, new patterns emerge that...

Perhaps the most stunning surprise revealed by JWST yet is a class of compact, red, high-redshift sources (z~2-9) found in virtually every image the telescope takes. The sheer numbers of these ``Little Red Dots" demand that any satisfying theory of...

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a new NSF/DOE-funded facility on Cerro Pachón, Chile. It houses the 8.4m Simonyi Survey Telescope and the 3.2 Gigapixel LSSTCam camera. The Observatory achieved first light in 2025. Over a ten-year period (projected...