Astrophysics Seminars

Sep
26
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

What We Think We Know About Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

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...

Sep
19
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

From Kepler to the Habitable Worlds Observatory: The Emerging Picture of Planet Populations
Jessie Christiansen
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

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...

Sep
12
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Supermassive Black Holes from AU to Megaparsec: Fundamentally New Physics in Accretion Disks
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

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...

Sep
05
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Experimental Studies of Black Holes: Status & Prospects
Reinhard Genzel
11:00am|Wolfensohn Hall

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...

May
02
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Testing Galaxy Formation Models with Large-scale Surveys of the Milky Way Stellar Halo
Emily Cunningham
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

While the vast majority of the light from our galaxy comes from the Galactic disk, the vast majority of the mass of the Milky Way (MW) is in its dark matter halo. Because we cannot directly observe the MW's dark matter halo, we must use luminous...

Apr
25
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Micromirror confinement of sub-TeV cosmic rays in galaxy clusters
Patrick Reichherzer
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Recent observations reveal that cosmic rays (CRs) are more tightly confined in various astrophysical systems (e.g. radio bubbles) than current theories predict. I show that microscale magnetic fluctuations, particularly from the mirror instability...

Apr
18
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Decoding Supernova Remnants
Abigail Polin
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

I will discuss a new method for analyzing the morphology of supernova remnants (SNRs) by using power specula analysis to diagnose the drivers responsible for structure at different angular scales. Using a suite of hydrodynamic models of the Rayleigh...

Apr
11
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Star Formation and Feedback: A Modern Primer
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

The cosmic history of galaxy formation is the history of star formation writ large.  Some of the most important processes affecting galaxy evolution involve coupling between stellar and gaseous components, since massive stars are the primary energy...

Apr
04
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

A Fresh Look at Galaxy Scaling Relations and What They Reveal about Galaxy Formation
Mike Fall
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

Despite the apparent complexity of galaxies, some of their most basic properties (mass M, binding energy E, angular momentum J, etc) obey simple power-law scaling relations. Such relations provide some of the clearest insights into galaxy formation...

Mar
28
2024

Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

Astrophysical Lessons from LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's Black Holes
Maya Fishbach
11:00am|Bloomberg Lecture Hall

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA detector network has observed over 70 gravitational-wave sources to date, including mergers between black holes, neutron stars, and mixed neutron star-black holes. Focusing on the black hole mergers, I will describe some recent...