A week ago, Kirk Barrow successfully defended his thesis, "Synthetic Observations using a Robust End-to-End Radiative Transfer Modeling Pipeline." You can find most of his results in his two published papers (link 1, link 2). He was also awarded the Amelio Prize that "rewards excellence in research by a physics graduate student." … Continue Reading ››

Today, Qi Ge successfully defended his thesis, "On the Effect of Lyman Alpha Trapping during the Initial Collapse of Massive Black Hole Seeds".  You can find most of his results in this paper. He'll be starting as a software research scientist at a Chinese startup that specializes in self-driving cars.  In particular, he'll … Continue Reading ››

Last week we submitted a paper (arXiv) on simulating the direct gaseous collapse into a massive black hole, led by Osaka postdoc Kazem Ardaneh. This work is a companion to an earlier paper led by Yang Luo, a postdoc at the University of Kentucky and Osaka.  It provides more realistic conditions … Continue Reading ››

Earlier this month, our paper (arXiv) on the chemical enrichment of the first galaxies and their connection to local ultra-faint dwarf galaxies was accepted to MNRAS. This paper was led by JHU postdoctoral researcher Lauren Corlies. We compared the average metallicities of both simulated and actual galaxies to determine how and when they … Continue Reading ››

Last month we submitted a paper (arXiv) on the direct collapse of a gaseous cloud into the beginnings of a supermassive star that will then further collapse into massive black hole around 10,000 to 100,000 solar masses.  This paper was led by postdoctoral research Yang Luo at Osaka University and University of Kentucky.  We … Continue Reading ››

Today we submitted a paper (arXiv) that follows the growth of a massive black hole seed in the early universe. We found that supernova explosions heat and stir up the gas inside the gas, preventing the central black hole to accrete and grow rapidly. Stars form at rates 10,000 to 100,000 times faster than … Continue Reading ››

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral research position at the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (CRA; http://cra.gatech.edu) in the Georgia Institute of Technology. The successful candidate will work in conjunction with Dr. John Wise on simulations of the first stars and galaxies and their observability with JWST. The position is for two years; renewal for a … Continue Reading ››

This week submitted a paper (arXiv) that compares, validates, and calibrates semi-analytic models of high-redshift galaxy formation to our previous simulations of the first stars and galaxies.  This paper was led by Benoit Côté, a postdoc at the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences in Budapest. Semi-analytic models of galaxy formation are … Continue Reading ››

Earlier this week, we submitted a new paper (arXiv), led by Kirk Barrow, on possible Population III observational signatures in the first galaxies, working off the Renaissance Simulations. While most metal-free stars might be tens of solar masses, intermediate-mass stars (1-8 solar masses) are still possible.  Alone, they wouldn't contribute significantly to the … Continue Reading ››

Last week, Qi Ge and I submitted a new paper (arXiv) on the importance of Lyman-alpha radiation trapping during the initial phases of massive black hole (BH) formation. Here we used a Monte Carlo method to trace photons in a pre-galactic cloud to see how they can suppress cooling that aids the gravitational … Continue Reading ››