Joint IAS Princeton University Astrophysics Colloquium

Intrinsic alignments of galaxy shapes with cosmological large-scale structure include a great deal of information about galaxy formation and evolution in a cosmological context, while also serving as a contaminant to weak gravitational lensing...

Note: Video recording will be available at https://www.ias.edu/video/sns.

The physical mechanism behind the acceleration of the universe remains one of the great mysteries of modern cosmology. Given the proliferation of dark energy models on the market, an obvious question is: How can we rule out whole classes of dark...

Infrared observations from Spitzer Space Telescope and Herschel Space Observatory are used to study the interstellar dust in M31. A physical dust model is used to map the dust surface density, dust/gas ratio, starlight heating intensity, and the...

The advent of wide-field synoptic imaging has re-invigorated the venerable field of time domain astronomy. Our framework of optical transients no longer has a wide six-magnitude luminosity "gap" between the brightest novae and faintest supernovae...

A classic problem posed by long gamma ray bursts (GRB) is that the energy output requires gravitational energy release so deep within the host star that the prompt gamma rays should, upon naive consideration, have been obscured. It is suggested that...

The talk begins in 2005, with the unexpected discovery that massive early-type galaxies were extremely compact at redshifts z~2. It is now thought that the remarkable size growth of these galaxies from z=2 to z=0 is largely due to minor mergers; the...

In the last few years of the lives of massive stars, fusion in the core of the star produces a nuclear power that greatly exceeds the Eddington luminosity. This drives vigorous convection in numerous core and shell burning phases. I describe the...

What role does social organization play in the conduct and practice of science? In this talk, I explore how the social and technical organization of scientific collaborations matters for the production of team solidarities, data sharing norms, and...