UCSB Astrophysics
Portrait of Omer Blaes

§ 01People · Emeriti

Omer Blaes

Professor Emeritus

Omer Blaes is a theorist who studies accretion onto compact objects: white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. Accretion powers some of the brightest sources in the universe. Its physics combines plasma physics, magnetohydrodynamics, turbulence and radiation pressure. His group studies it with supercomputer simulations and with analytic theory of instabilities and of the interaction of photons with matter.

Results include the finding that opacity driven convection can produce a large increase in angular momentum transport during dwarf nova outbursts. His group has also studied photon bubbles in the magnetically confined accretion columns of neutron stars, and shown that convection in the ultraviolet emitting regions of quasar disks can drive quasar variability.

He earned his DPhil at SISSA in Trieste and held postdoctoral positions at Caltech and CITA. He joined UCSB in 1993 and chaired the Physics Department from 2010 to 2013.

§ 02Publications

Recent papers

The newest papers with Omer Blaes as an author, from NASA ADS. Group members are in gold.

  1. 01Sep 2026arXiv
    Semi-Analytic Solutions For Warped, Super-Eddington Accretion Disks with OutflowsG. Wohlfarth, M. Middleton, O. Blaes, P. C. FragileBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2609.28017
  2. 02Sep 2026arXiv
    Geometrically Thin Sub-Eddington AGN Accretion Disks show a suppressed Lyman EdgeI. Kaul, Y.-F. Jiang, O. Blaes, L. ZhangBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2609.22421
  3. 03Nov 2025Space Science Reviews
    Non-Stationary Discs and InstabilitiesO. Blaes, Y.-F. Jiang, J.-P. Lasota, G. LipunovaBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2505.04402
  4. 04Oct 2025ApJ
    Magnetosonic Waves as a Potential Driver of Observed Temperature Fluctuation Patterns in AGN Accretion DisksI. Kaul, O. Blaes, Y.-F. Jiang, L. ZhangBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2506.11189
  5. 05Jul 2025MNRAS
    A parameter survey of neutron star accretion column simulationsL. Zhang, O. Blaes, Y.-F. JiangBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2506.02288
  6. 06Jul 2025ApJ
    Radiation and Magnetic Pressure Support in Accretion Disks Around Supermassive Black Holes and the Physical Origin of the Extreme-ultraviolet to Soft X-Ray SpectrumY.-F. Jiang, O. Blaes, I. Kaul, L. ZhangBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2505.09671
  7. 07Feb 2025ApJ
    Thermal Spectra of Warped and Broken Accretion DisksJ. Speicher, O. BlaesBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2501.14629
  8. 08Feb 2025ApJ
    Simulations of Eccentricity Growth in Compact Binary Accretion Disks with Magnetohydrodynamic TurbulenceM. Ohana, Y.-F. Jiang, O. Blaes, B. OyangBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2411.15325
  9. 09Sep 2023MNRAS
    Dynamical effects of magnetic opacity in neutron star accretion columnsX. Sheng, L. Zhang, O. Blaes, Y.-F. JiangBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2307.02410
  10. 10Mar 2023MNRAS
    Dynamics of neutron star accretion columns in split-monopole magnetic fieldsL. Zhang, O. Blaes, Y.-F. JiangBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2210.06616

All papers by Omer Blaes

Everyone in the group