I am involved as co-I and science/theory lead in the Swift consortium, a multi-institution NASA satellite to study GRB afterglows in the gamma-, X-ray and optical ranges, currently being readied for launch in early 2004. I am co-PI of the NSF Physics Frontier Center for Gravitational Wave Physics, and member of the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, both at Penn State, doing work on gravitational astrophysics. I am also a member of the ICECUBE international collaboration, an under-ice Cherenkov detector being developed in Antartica for the measurement of ultra-high energy neutrinos, with related interests in its AMANDA prototype, the Auger cosmic ray array and the GLAST GeV photon space mission. A brief overview of the main research areas and some details on specific projects are under the previous links for gamma-ray bursts, neutrinos , gravitational waves, neutron stars, and cosmology.
Among other research topics, the main results include the first studies of dissipative spherical accretion on black holes; the first investigation of galaxy formation mediated by primeval black holes or cold dark matter, and the freezing of cold dark matter in the cosmological radiation, called the Meszaros effect in some cosmology texts; the physics of strongly magnetized plasmas, including the QED vacuum polarization effects; models of accreting X-ray pulsars and cyclotron lines, summarized in a book on high-energy radiation from neutron stars; topics in the hydrodynamics and ionization of the interstellar medium; and the cosmological diffuse X-ray background radiation.
More detailed references are in a list of publications and a list of recent talks.
Research sponsors: NSF, NASA