Research Homepage of Christian D. Ott
Welcome!
I am a computational/theoretical astrophysicist in TAPIR at Caltech working at
the interface of numerical relativity, nuclear/neutrino astrophysics,
and gravitational-wave physics. My current primary research interest
is to find ways to blow up massive stars, that is, make core-collapse
supernovae and gamma-ray bursts and their compact remnants, black
holes and neutron stars. This work is carried out as part of the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes
(SXS) collaboration and we also work closely with the Einstein Toolkit team.
Another line of my research is
concerned with the observation and interpretation of gravitational
waves using the LIGO
interferometers and I am a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.
I am presently an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and am leading
an NSF CAREER project in Gravitational Physics.
I received my PhD in 2007 at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational
Physics under Bernard Schutz's and Ed Seidel's supervision and then
was a Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics postdoctoral fellow with
Adam Burrows at The University of Arizona before joining Caltech.
More details can be found in my CV.
My current team at TAPIR:
| Undergrads | Hannah Klion |
| Grad students | Kristen Boydstun, Jeff Kaplan, Evan O'Connor, Casey Handmer, and John Wendell |
| Postdocs | Ernazar Abdikamalov, Roland Haas (NSERC fellow), Peter Kalmus (LIGO), Philipp Mösta, Tony Piro, and Christian Reisswig |
| Visitors | Luc Dessart, Uli Sperhake, and Steve Drasco (visualization) |
| Admins | JoAnn Boyd, Shirley Hampton |
Teaching Info
2010/2011 Winter term. Ay190 -- Computational Astrophysics 2011/2012 Fall term. FS 001 -- Freshman Seminar on Cosmic Explosions and Their Multi-Messenger Signals
2009/2010 Winter term: Ay 215 -- Seminar in Theoretical
Astrophysics: Interacting Binaries.
|
Snapshot from a 3D GR black hole formation simulation (Ott et al. 2011, PRL) |
New Stuff (in quasi-chronological order)
- 2012/05/11 The American Physical Society Topical Group in Gravitation (GGR) executive committee election results are out: I am now a Member at Large of GGR and will serve on the executive committee for the next three years!
- 2012/02/15 I was named a 2012-2014 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. (Announcement).
- 2012/01/19 My postdoc Christian Reisswig has been announced of one of the 2012 Einstein Fellowship recipients!! Congratulations, Christian!
- 2012/01/10 My NSF CAREER proposal in Gravitational Physics will be funded!
- 2011/06/20-24 Microphysics in Computational Relativistic Astrophysics 2011 (MICRA 2011) workshop at the Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. This is the second MICRA (the first one was in 2009 at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark) that I co-organized and I think it was another great success. Slides are available at micra2011.org.
- 2010/07/06 -- invited talk at GR19 in Mexico City on some brand new results on the formation of stellar mass black holes. Slides are available here.
-
I was on TV!!! I participated in episode 2 Black Holes of the
Discovery Science Channel show Through the Wormhole (hosted by
Morgan Freeman!). Check out the show on YouTube. I appear first at about 5:12 into the show:
Older News
Some Current Projects and Collaborations
- I am a member of the Einstein Toolkit that aims to provide well tested and documented open-source simulation codes to the numerical relativity and astrophysics modeling community. The Einstein Toolkit is currently funded by a collaborative NSF grant to LSU, RIT, Georgia Tech, and Caltech.
- I very strongly believe in open source and strive to make my simulation codes and input physics publically available. Most of my 3D supernova simulation tools are already public and part of the Einstein Toolkit . My grad student Evan O'Connor's code GR1D (see the GR1D code paper) is also available as open source from our stellarcollapse.org website. There we also host finite-temperature nuclear equation of state tables and table reader/interpolation code.
- My postdocs Christian Reisswig and Ernazar Abdikamalov, my grad student Evan O'Connor and I are working on 3D general-relativistic simulations of stellar collapse and postbounce supernova evolution. We collaborate with Peter Kalmus (LIGO, Caltech) and with folks at the Center for Computation and Technology at LSU: Erik Schnetter, Frank Löffler (CCT/LSU), and Peter Diener (CCT/LSU).
- I am an active member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration Burst Data Analysis working group and am presently involved in a search for gravitational waves from core-collapse supernovae. My direct collaborators on this are Peter Kalmus and Lucia Santamaria (both LIGO, Caltech).
- With the Caltech-Cornell-CITA-WSU Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) collaboration I am studying the merger of neutron star - neutron star and black hole - neutron star binaries. This research is primarily funded by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, NSF, and NASA. My direct collaborators are my graduate student Jeff Kaplan, Matt Duez at WSU, Larry Kidder, Francois Foucart and Saul Teukolsky at Cornell, Mark Scheel and Bela Szilagyi at Caltech.
- I work with the Princeton supernova group (led by Adam Burrows) on various topics in core-collapse supernova theory. The current focus is on magneto-hydrodynamics and the effects of various approximations to neutrino radiation transport in the core-collapse supernova phenomenon. My direct collaborators on this project are Adam Burrows (Princeton), Luc Dessart (Princeton/Marseille), Eli Livne (Jerusalem), Timothy Brandt (Princeton), and Jason Nordhaus (RIT/U Rochester/Princeton).
- With Basudeb Dasgupta (at Ohio State) and my graduate student Evan O'Connor I am working on the effect of neutrino oscillations on the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism.
Publications
(Complete ADS list), (only refereed ADS publications).Short Author List Work:
- B. Dasgupta, E. O'Connor, C. D. Ott, "Role of collective neutrino flavor oscillations in core-collapse supernova shock revival," Phys. Rev. D. 84, 065008 (2012), (ads).
- A. Piro, C. D. Ott, "Supernova Fallback onto Magnetars and Propeller-powered Supernovae,", Astrophys. J. 736, 108 (2011), (ads).
- E. Thrane, S. Kandhasamy, C. D. Ott, et al., "Long gravitational-wave transients and associated detection strategies for a network of terrestrial interferometers,", Phys. Rev. D. 83, 083004 (2011), (ads).
- C. D. Ott, C. Reisswig, E. Schnetter, E. O'Connor, U. Sperhake, F. Löller, P. Diener, E. Abdikamalov, I. Hawke, and A. Burrows, "Dynamics and Gravitational Wave Signature of Collapsar Formation,", Phys. Rev. Lett 106, 161103 (2011), (ads)
- C. Reisswig, C. D. Ott, U. Sperhake, and E. Schnetter, "Gravitational wave extraction in simulations of rotating stellar core collapse,", Phys. Rev. D. 83, 064008 (2011), (ads)
- E. O'Connor and C. D. Ott, "Black Hole Formation in Failing Core-Collapse Supernovae," ApJ 730, 70 (2011), (ads)
- T. Brandt, A. Burrows, E. Livne, C. D. Ott, "Results From Core-Collapse Simulations with Multi-Dimensional, Multi-Angle Neutrino Transport,", ApJ 728, 8 (2011), (ads)
- J. Nordhaus, T. Brandt, A. Burrows, E. Livne, and C. D. Ott, "Theoretical Support for the Hydrodynamic Mechanism of Pulsar Kicks," accepted for publication in PRD, 2010, (ads)
- F. Peng and C. D. Ott, "Helium Ignition on Accreting Neutron Stars with a New Triple-alpha Reaction Rate," ApJ 725, 309, 2010, (ads)
- E. O'Connor and C. D. Ott, "A New Open-Source Code for Spherically-Symmetric Stellar Collapse to Neutron Stars and Black Holes," Class. Quant. Grav. 27, 114103, 2010, (ads)
- M. Duez, F. Foucart, L. Kidder, C. D. Ott, and S. Teukolsky, "Equation of State Effects in Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers," Class. Quant. Grav. 27, 114106, 2010, (ads).
- I. Leonor, L. Cadonati, E. Coccia, S. D'Antonio, A. Di. Credico, V. Fafone, R. Frey, W. Fulgione, E. Katsavounidis, C. D. Ott, G. Pagliaroli, K. Scholberg, E. Thrane, F. Vissani, "Searching for Prompt Signatures of Nearby Core-Collapse Supernovae by a Joint Analysis of Neutrino and Gravitational-Wave data," accepted for publication in Class. Quant. Grav. 27, 084019, 2010, (ads).
- E. Abdikamalov, C. D. Ott, L. Rezzolla, L. Dessart, H. Dimmelmeier, A. Marek, and H.-T. Janka, "Axisymmetric General Relativistic Simulations of the Accretion-Induced Collapse of White Dwarfs," Phys. Rev. D. 81, 044012, 2010, (ads)
- J. Murphy, C. D. Ott, and A. Burrows, "A Model for Gravitational Wave Emission from Neutrino-Driven Core-Collapse Supernovae", ApJ 707, 1173, 2009, (ads)
- C. D. Ott, "Probing the Core-Collapse Supernova Mechanism with Gravitational Waves ". Class. Quant. Grav. 26, 204015, 2009 (ads)
- C. D. Ott, "The Gravitational Wave Signature of Core-Collapse Supernovae," topical review, Class. Quant. Grav. 26, 063001, 2009, (ads)
- L. Dessart, C. D. Ott, A. Burrows, and E. Livne, "Neutrino signatures and the neutrino-driven wind in Binary Neutron Star Mergers,", accepted for publication in ApJ, (ads)
- H. Dimmelmeier, C. D. Ott, A. Marek, and H.-T. Janka, "The Gravitational Wave Burst Signal from Core Collapse of Rotating Stars," Phys. Rev. D 78, 065056, 2008(ads)
- C. D. Ott, A. Burrows, L. Dessart, and E. Livne, "2D Multi-Angle, Multi-Group Neutrino Radiation-Hydrodynamic Simulations of Postbounce Supernova Cores," ApJ 685, 1069, 2008. (ads)
- T. Z. Summerscales, A. Burrows, C. D. Ott, and L. S. Finn, "Maximum Entropy for Gravitational Wave Data Analysis: Inferring the Physical Parameters of Core-Collapse Supernovae," ApJ 678, 1142, 2008. (ads)
- L. Dessart, A. Burrows, E. Livne, and C. D. Ott, "The Proto-Neutron Star Phase of the Collapsar Model and the Route to Long-Soft Gamma-Ray Bursts and Hypernovae," ApJ L673, 585, 2008 (ads)
- L. Dessart, A. Burrows, C. D. Ott, and E. Livne, "Magnetically-driven explosions of rapidly-rotating white dwarfs following Accretion-Induced Collapse," ApJ 669, 585, 2007 (ads)
- C. D. Ott, H. Dimmelmeier, A. Marek, H.-T. Janka, I. Hawke, B. Zink, and E. Schnetter, "3D Collapse of Rotating Stellar Iron Cores in General Relativity Including Deleptonization and a Nuclear Equation of State," PRL 98, 261101, 2007. (ads)
- A. Burrows, E. Livne, L. Dessart, C. D. Ott, and J. Murphy, "Simulations of Magnetically-Driven Supernova and Hypernova Explosions in the Context of Rapid Rotation," ApJ 664, 416, 2007. (ads)
- H. Dimmelmeier, C. D. Ott, A. Marek, H.-T. Janka, and E. Müller, "Gravitational-Wave Signals from the Collapse of Rotating Stellar Cores," PRL 98, 251101, 2007. (ads)
- C. D. Ott, H. Dimmelmeier, A. Marek, H.-T. Janka, I. Hawke, B. Zink, and E. Schnetter, "Rotating Collapse of Stellar Iron Cores in General Relativity," refereed proceedings of the New Frontiers in Numerical Relativity Conference, Albert-Einstein-Institut, Potsdam. CQG 24, S139, 2007. (ads)
- B. Zink, N. Stergioulas, I. Hawke, C. D. Ott, E. Schnetter, E. Müller, "Non-axisymmetric instability and fragmentation of general relativistic quasi-toroidal stars," PRD 76, 204019, 2007. (ads)
- A. Burrows, E. Livne, L. Dessart, C. D. Ott, and J. Murphy, "Features of the Acoustic Mechanism of Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions," ApJ 655, 416, 2007. (ads)
- C. D. Ott, A. Burrows, L. Dessart, and E. Livne, "A New Mechanism for the Gravitational Wave Emission in Core-Collapse Supernovae," PRL 96, 201102, 2006. (ads)
- A. Burrows, E. Livne, L. Dessart, C. D. Ott, and J. Murphy, "A New Mechanism for Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions,", ApJ 640, 878, 2006. (ads)
- L. Dessart, A. Burrows, E. Livne, and C. D. Ott, "Multi-Dimensional Radiation/Hydrodynamic Simulations of Protoneutron Star Convection," ApJ 645, 534, 2006. (ads)
- C. D. Ott, A. Burrows, T. Thompson, E. Livne, and R. Walder, "The Spin Periods and Rotational Profiles of Neutron Stars at Birth," ApJS 164, 130, 2006. (ads)
- L. Dessart, A. Burrows, C. D. Ott, and E. Livne, "Multi-Dimensional Simulations of the Accretion-Induced Collapse of White Dwarfs to Neutron Stars," ApJ 644, 1063, 2006 (ads)
- B. Zink, N. Stergioulas, I. Hawke, C. D. Ott, E. Schnetter, E. Müller, "Black hole formation through fragmentation of toroidal polytropes", PRL 96, 161101, 2006. (ads)
- R. Walder, A. Burrows, C. D. Ott, E. Livne, M. Jarrah, "Anisotropies in the Neutrino Fluxes and Heating Profiles in Two-dimensional, Time-dependent, Multi-group Radiation Hydrodynamics Simulations of Rotating Core-Collapse Supernovae," ApJ 626, 317, 2005. (ads)
- C. D. Ott, S. Ou, J. E. Tohline, A. Burrows, "One-armed Spiral Instability in a Slowly Rotating, Post-Bounce Supernova Core", ApJ 625, L119, 2005. (ads)
- C. D. Ott, A. Burrows, E. Livne, and R. Walder, "Gravitational Waves from Axisymmetric, Rotational Stellar Core Collapse," ApJ 600, 834, 2004. (ads)
Preprints
- C. D. Ott, E. Abdikamalov, E. O'Connor, C. Reisswig, R. Haas, P. Kalmus, S. Drasco, A. Burrows, and E. Schnetter, "Correlated Gravitational Wave and Neutrino Signals from General-Relativistic Rapidly Rotating Iron Core Collapse," submitted to Phys. Rev. D. (2012), (ads/arXiv).
- L. Dessart, E. O'Connor, C. D. Ott, "The Arduous Journey to Black-Hole Formation in Potential Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors,", submitted to ApJ (2012), (ads/arXiv)
- E. Abdikamalov, A. Burrows, C. D. Ott, F. Loeffler, E. O'Connor, J. Dolence, E. Schnetter, "A New Monte Carlo Method for Time-Dependent Neutrino Radiation Transport," submitted to ApJ (2012), (ads/arXiv).
- J. Logue, C. D. Ott, I. S. Heng, P. Kalmus, J. Scargill, "Inferring Core-Collapse Supernova Physics with Gravitational Waves," submitted to Phys. Rev. D. (2012), (ads/arXiv).
