FRED RASIO
Joseph Cummings Professor of Physics
Northwestern University

Highlights of Recent Research:

LIGO Sources from Dense Star Clusters
Tidal Dissipation of Hot Jupiters
Gravitational Waves as a New Probe of Dense Nuclear Matter
Dynamics of Extrasolar Planetary Systems

Background Photo Credit: LIGO

Students and Postdocs

Current Postdoctoral Associates Current Graduate Students

Former Postdoctoral Associates Former Graduate Students

 

CURRENT POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATES:

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Fabio Antonini (Rochester Institute of Technology PhD '11)

Current Position:   CIERA Fellow Research:   Galaxy evolution; stellar dynamics of dense stellar systems; computational astrophysics Office:   Tech F221  Phone:   (847) 467-6233 E-mail:   fabio.antonini@northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Sourav Chatterjee (Northwestern University PhD '10)

Current Position:   CIERA Fellow and Research Assistant Professor Research:   Dynamics of extra solar planetary systems Office:   Tech F223 Phone:   (847) 467-4722 E-mail:   sourav.chatterjee@northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS:

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Kyle Kremer

NSF Graduate Fellow Research:   Black holes in dense star clusters Office:   Tech F220 Phone:   (847) 491-4661 E-mail:   KyleKremer2012@u.northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Josh Fixelle

NSF Graduate Fellow Research:   Hydrodynamics of stellar and planetary collisions Office:   Tech F226 Phone:   (847) 467-4791 E-mail:   JoshuaFixelle2014@u.northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Jason Hwang

NSF GK-12 Fellow Research:   Dynamical stability and collisional evolution of multi-planet systems Office:   Tech F220 Phone:   (847) 491-4661 E-mail:   JasonHwang2014@u.northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Claire (Shi) Ye

Research:   Dynamics of dense star clusters Office:   Tech F222 E-mail:   ShiYe2015@u.northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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FORMER POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATES:

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Francesca Valsecchi (Northwestern University PhD '12)

Current Position:   Senior Consultant at Clarity Solution Group Research:   Tidal effects in hot-Jupiter systems E-mail:   valsecchi.francesca@gmail.com URL:   Francesca Valsecchi Publications:   NASA ADS

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Smadar Naoz (Tel Aviv University PhD ‘10)

Gruber Foundation Fellow Fellow (2010-2011) Harvard ITC Fellow (2011-2012) NASA Einstein Fellow (2012-2014) Current Position:   Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy, UCLA Research:   Cosmology; dynamics of stellar and planetary systems. E-mail:   snaoz@astro.ucla.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Paul Kiel (Swinburne PhD '09)

Current Position:   Staff Scientist at Swinburne University Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing Research:   Radio pulsars and X-ray binaries, binary star evolution and dynamics in dense star clusters E-mail:   pdkiel@gmail.com Publications:   NASA ADS

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Soko Matsumura (McMaster PhD '06)

CTC Fellow, University of Maryland (2009-2012) Current Position:   Lecturer in Physics and Dundee Fellow, University of Dundee, UK Research:   Planet formation and dynamics, protoplanetary disks, extrasolar planets. E-mail:   s.matsumura@dundee.ac.uk Publications:   NASA ADS

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Stefan Umbreit (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy PhD '06)

Current Position:   Data Scientist at 4C Insights Research:   Star formation, brown dwarfs, dynamics of dense star clusters. E-mail:   stefan@4cinsights.com Publications:   NASA ADS

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John Fregeau (UIUC BS '99; MIT PhD '04)

MIT Stockbarger Fellow (1999-2001) NASA Chandra Fellow (2007-2010) Current Position:   Research Staff at IDA Center for Computing Sciences, Washington, DC Research:   Dense star cluster dynamics, N-body simulations, gravitational wave sources. E-mail:   fregeau@alum.mit.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Natasha Ivanova (Oxford D.Phil. '03)

Current Position:   Associate Professor of Physics and Canada Research Chair in Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Alberta, Canada E-mail:   nata.ivanova@ualberta.ca URL:   Natasha Ivanova Publications:   NASA ADS

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Joshua A. Faber (MIT PhD '01)

MIT Compton Fellow (1997-1999) NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow (2004-2007) Current Position:   Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology Email:   jafsma@rit.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Marc Freitag (Université de Genève D.Sc. '00)

Current Position:   Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cambridge, UK. Enseignant, Gymnase de Nyon, Switzerland Email:   marc.freitag@gmail.com Publications:   NASA ADS

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Ed Thommes (Queen's University PhD '00)

Current Position:   Health Outcomes Manager at GlaxoSmithKline, Canada E-mail:   ethommes@uoguelph.ca Publications:   NASA ADS

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Simon Portegies Zwart (Utrecht University PhD '96)

Spinoza Fellow (1996-1997) Hubble Fellow (1998-2001) Current Position:   Professor, Leiden Observatory, University of Leiden, The Netherlands Email:   s.portegieszwart@gmail.com Publications:   NASA ADS

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FORMER GRADUATE STUDENTS:

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Joel Schwartz (NU PhD '16)

NSF GK-12 Fellow (2015-2016) Current Position:   Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University PhD Thesis:     E-mail:   joel.schwartz@mail.mcgill.ca Publications:   NASA ADS

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Carl Rodriguez (NU PhD '16)

Current Position:   Pappalardo Postdoctoral Fellow (MIT) PhD Thesis:   High Performance Computer Simulations of Stellar Clusters E-mail:   CarlRodriguez2015@u.northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Meagan Morscher (NU PhD '14)

Current Position:   Performance Consultant at Allen Communication Learning Services, Salt Lake City PhD Thesis:   The Dynamical Evolution of Stellar Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters E-mail:   m.morscher@u.northwestern.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Bharath Pattabiraman (NU PhD '14)

Current Position:   Software Engineer at Google PhD Thesis:   Parallelization Strategies for Large Particle Simulations in Astrophysics E-mail:   bharath@u.northwestern.edu URL:   users.eecs.northwestern.edu/~bpa342 Publications:   NASA ADS

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Sanghamitra Goswami (NU PhD '13)

Current Position:   Principal Consultant at Clarity Solution, Chicago PhD Thesis:   Formation and Evolution of Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters Publications:   NASA ADS

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Sourav Chatterjee (NU PhD '10)

University of Florida Postdoctoral Associate Current Position:   CIERA Fellow and Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University PhD Thesis:   Numerical Modeling of Dense Star Clusters E-mail:   sourav.chatterjee@northwestern.edu URL:   Sourav Chatterjee Publications:   NASA ADS

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Emmanouela Rantsiou (NU PhD '09)

Current Position:   Staff Physicist, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland PhD Thesis:   Relativistic SPH Calculations of Black Hole – Neutron Star Binary Mergers Publications:   NASA ADS

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Genya Takeda (NU PhD '08)

Current Position:   Executive Vice President, Sanoh Industrial, Japan PhD Thesis:   Planetary Systems in Binaries Publications:   NASA ADS

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Atakan Gürkan (Middle East Technical University BS '96, MS '98; NU PhD '05)

Current Position:   Professor of Astrophysics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey PhD Thesis:   Massive Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters Publications:   NASA ADS

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John M. Fregeau(UIUC BS '99; MIT PhD '04)

MIT Stockbarger Fellow (1999-2001) NASA Chandra Fellow (2007-2010) Current Position:   Research Staff at IDA Center for Computing Sciences, Washington, DC PhD Thesis:   Dynamics and Evolution of Dense Stellar Systems Email:   fregeau@alum.mit.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Joshua A. Faber (SUNY Stony Brook BS '97; MIT PhD '01)

MIT Compton Fellow (1997-1999) NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow (2004-2007) Current Position:   Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology PhD Thesis:   Gravity Wave Signals from Relativistic Calculations of Binary Neutron Star Coalescence Email:   jafsma@rit.edu Publications:   NASA ADS

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Kriten J. (Kris) Joshi (Caltech BS '95; MIT PhD '00)

Current Position:   Senior Director for Strategy and Business Development, Oracle Corp PhD Thesis:   Monte Carlo Simulations of Globular Cluster Dynamics Publications:   NASA ADS

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Background Photo Credit: Hubble Space Telescope

Teaching

Spring 2017:

Physics 345-0, Intro to General Relativity:
Review of special relativity and Newtonian gravity; Gravity as geometry of curved spacetime; Geodesics and conservation laws; Schwarzschild geometry; Post-Newtonian expansions and tests of general relativity; Gravitational collapse and black holes; Linearized gravity and gravitational waves; Cosmological models for the expanding Universe. Prerequisites: PHYSICS 330-1, 2 or consent of instructor.

Background Photo Credit: Chandra

Outreach

MOVIES:

Planet-Disk Interactions:

• Hybrid simulation of planet formation [3.8MB .mov]

Red Giant - Neutron Star Collisions:

• A grazing-incidence collision [23.5MB .mov]
• A more distant encounter [38.4MB .mov]

Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Mergers:

• Movie 1 [12MB .mpeg]
• Movie 2 [8MB .mpeg]

Binary Neutron Star Mergers:

• Equal-Mass Mergers [28.3MB .mov]   [35.5MB .avi]
• Unequal-Mass Mergers [33.3MB .mov]   [11.8MB .avi]

Black Hole - Neutron Star Mergers:

• Nonspinning (Schwarzschild) Black Hole [272KB .avi]
• Maximally Spinning (Kerr) Black Hole [2.8MB .avi]

Tidal Disruption of a Giant Planet:

• Movie 1 [22MB .mov]

Dynamical Instabilities in Planetary Systems:

• Planet-Planet Scattering Animation [2.8MB .mov]  [30MB .mov]

Triple-Star Interactions and Scattering:

• Single-Binary Interaction [4.7MB .mpg]
• Long Excursion [3.5MB .mpg]
• Standard [3.9MB .mpg]
• Minor Merger [4.9MB .mpg]
• Heavy Outer [1.9MB .mpg]

Globular Cluster Evolution:

• Direct Nbody Simulation; N=64k [83MB .mov]

VISUALIZATIONS

Background Photo Credit: Hubble Space Telescope