I am a computational astrophysicist with a broad range of interests related ot the formation of dark matter halos and galaxies. I address these questions with numerical simulations of both individual galaxies and cosmological volumes, and through a mixture of code development, supercomputing, and data analysis. Below is an incomplete list of some of my previous and current research projects.
![]() | Splashback radius We propose the splashback radius as a halo boundary that is more physically meaningful than conventional definitions such as the virial radius. |
![]() | HI and H2 in simulated galaxies We post-process the Illustris simulations to identify the contributions from the different species of hydrogen, and to compare simulated galaxies to observations. |
![]() | Log-normal star formation histories We find that star formation histories in the Illustris simulation are surprisingly well described by the simple log-normal form, and that they are tightly related to the history of halos. |
![]() | Concentration-mass relation We propose a new way of modeling the concentration-mass relation of halos, based only on their peak height and the slope of the power spectrum. |
![]() | Halo density profiles We show that, contrary to common belief, halo density profiles depend on the mass accretion rate and that they exhibit a characteristic steepening at the splashback radius. |
![]() | Pseudo-evolution We point out that a significant fraction of the evolution of spherical overdensity halo masses can be due to the changing boundary definition rather than physical accretion. |
![]() | Type Ia Supernova light curves We use data-driven models to compare the light curves of simulated supernovae to observations. |