About Me

Education:

Research Interests: Theoretical Astrophysics, Exoplanets, Accretion Disks, Planet Formation, Black Hole Binaries, Orbital Dynamics

Publications: ADS   Google Scholar

Research

Group Website Our group's research blog/website can be found here

Current Research Group Members

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Isabelle Bäuerle

Isabelle Bäuerle is an undergraduate student at Northern Arizona University interested in the secular evolution of hierarchical multiple systems, with a special focus on warm Jupiter and proto-hot Jupiter dynamics.

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Alex Jaraba

Alex Jaraba is an undergraduate student at Northern Arizona University interested in the dynamics of binary and multiple massive black hole dynamics within nuclear clusters.

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Noah Gordon

Noah Gordon is an undergraduate student at Northern Arizona University interested in the dynamics of gaseous eccentricity normal modes in protoplanetary disks.

Teaching

Teaching: At NAU I have been teaching the following courses: AST 499/599 "Orbital Dynamics". (Spring 2025), AST-501 "Fundamentals of Planetary Science I" a.k.a. "Planet Formation" (Fall 2023),

Outreach:

Equity & Inclusion:

Prospective Students

Currently, I am looking for students to join my research group. Some of the research topics being offered to prospective students are:

Massive black hole binaries: I am looking to recruit students interested in working on the dynamics and evolution of accreting massive black hole binaries embedded in galactic nuclear clusters.

Protoplanet accretion: I plan to develop high-resolution, three-dimensional computational models of proto-planet accretion. This project will characterize accretion and the planetary atmosphere through 3D numerical simulations with state-of-the-art numerical tools, including physical and numerical models for radiation hydrodynamics, dust-dynamics, and self-gravity through a hybrid approach, consisting in the combination of the publicly available hydrodynamics codes FARGO3D and AREPO to simulate planets embedded in the disk with improved boundary conditions.


Obliquity dynamics: I am looking for students to work on the secular dynamics of oblique stars and planets. In particular, we look to explore the role of rheolohy and dynamical tides on the spin evolution of stellar and planetary bodies.


Stellar triples in the Galactic field: I am looking for a student interested in work on the dynamics of few bodies subject to large such as the Galactic tide, or the tidal field of a galactic nuclear cluster.


Solid/Fluid-dynamical Simulations of Asteroid/Planet Impacts: I am looking for students interested in developing a new finite-volume method to solve the equations of solid mechanics on a moving Voronoi mesh. The purpose of this project is to simulate high-velocity impacts between asteroids and between planetary-sized bodies using realistic equations of state and stress tensors.