Astrophysics Seminars

Star formation takes place in the densest and coldest parts of the interstellar medium (ISM), in dark molecular clouds. These are swept up by multiple supernova explosions on scales of several hundred parsec. While condensing out of the warm ISM...

I discuss graviton non-Gaussianities in models of inflation where de Sitter isometries are spontaneously broken. First, I review the different symmetry breaking patterns following Nicolis, Penco, Piazza, Rattazzi (2015), and discuss which of them...

The Milky Way is a unique testbed for theories of galaxy formation and evolution. Especially the stellar halo is amenable to studies into our galaxy’s past both because it contains some of the oldest stars and because the dynamical timescales are...

Binary neutron star mergers provide a unique probe of the neutron star equation of state (EOS) across a wide range of parameter space, from the zero-temperature EOS during the inspiral to the finite-temperature EOS following the merger. In this talk...

NASA's Kepler mission conducted a large survey of planetary systems.  Recently, we have advanced from measuring occurrence rates as a function of planet size and period to characterizing the intrinsic distribution of planetary system architectures. ...

Earth-based radar observations in 2006–2019 enable the first measurement of the spin precession rate and moment of inertia of Venus. The observations also show that the spin period of the solid planet changes by tens of minutes. The length-of-day...

I will present the first results of the survey of all white dwarfs (WD) that were observed in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) using the Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS). The final outcome will be...

A dark matter candidate lighter than about 30 eV exhibits wave behavior in a typical galactic environment. Examples include the QCD axion as well as other axion-like-particles. We review the particle physics motivations, and discuss experimental and...

High-precision astrometric data from space observatories, such as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Gaia, are revolutionizing our ability to study the Local Group. 6D phase space measurements (3-dimensional position and velocity) now make it...

Over the next decade, large galaxy surveys will map billions of galaxies and probe cosmic structure formation with high statistical precision. This talk will focus on the opportunities and challenges of cosmological analyses in the presence of...