UCSB Astrophysics
Portrait of Philip Lubin

§ 01People · Faculty

Philip Lubin

Professor

Philip Lubin is an experimental physicist. His group studies the early universe at millimeter wavelengths and develops directed energy systems for propulsion and planetary defense. The group has built and fielded more than two dozen ground-based and balloon experiments and helped develop two cosmology satellites. It first detected horizon scale fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, from the South Pole and from balloons.

He is a co-investigator on Planck and shared the 2006 Gruber Cosmology Prize with the COBE team and the 2018 Gruber Cosmology Prize with the Planck team.

His directed energy work studies laser systems that could defend against asteroids and comets, and laser arrays that could push small probes to relativistic speeds for the first interstellar missions. His 2016 paper “A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight” set out the concept behind Breakthrough Starshot.

§ 02Fig. 1

Where in the universe

Range 0.63 AU to 20 AU; 13.5 Gly to 13.8 Gly

Philip Lubin, row of Fig. 1. The bar spans the light travel distances of the objects studied, 0.63 AU to 20 AU; 13.5 Gly to 13.8 Gly, on a logarithmic axis from the Solar System to the cosmic microwave background. Its color is the research theme. Dotted lines mark landmarks. Fig. 1 with every faculty member

§ 03Publications

Recent papers

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

  1. 01Nov 2026Acta Astronautica
    Enabling planetary defense: Science, law, ethicsE. Kendal, M. Kujawa, P. LubinCosmology
    DOI
  2. 02Aug 2026arXiv
    Sensitivity of Next-Generation CMB Surveys to Neutrinos and Other Light RelicsC. Trendafilova, S. Raghunathan, B. Wallisch, J. Meyers, K. N. Abazajian, E. Altamura, C. Baccigalupi, K. K. Boddy et al. (36 authors); UCSB: P. LubinCosmology
    arXiv:2608.07453
  3. 03Jul 2026arXiv
    Remembering George SmootJ. Berliner, T. Broadhurst, M. Bucher, R. Cahn, J. Cervantes-Cota, S. Chu, N. Csiszár, R. Emami et al. (34 authors); UCSB: P. LubinCosmology
    arXiv:2607.13063
  4. 04Apr 2026arXiv
    Science from the In Situ Exploration of the Proxima Centauri SystemT. M. Eubanks, J. Schneider, B. Bills, W. P. Blase, A. M. Hein, P. Kervella, A. Hibberd, R. G. Kennedy et al. (14 authors); UCSB: P. LubinCosmology
    arXiv:2604.20182
  5. 05Jul 2025AJ
    Multiparameter Constraints on Empirical Infrasound Period-Yield Relations for Bolides and Implications for Planetary DefenseE. A. Silber, J. M. Trigo-Rodríguez, I. Oseghae, E. Peña-Asensio, M. Boslough, R. Whitaker, C. Pilger, P. Lubin et al. (21 authors)Cosmology
    arXiv:2505.03040
  6. 06Jun 2025PASP
    Cryoscope: A Cryogenic Infrared Survey Telescope in AntarcticaM. M. Kasliwal, N. Earley, R. Smith, T. Guillot, T. Travouillon, J. Fucik, L. Abe, T. Greffe et al. (60 authors); UCSB: P. LubinCosmology
    arXiv:2502.06950
  7. 07May 2025ApJ
    The Local Galactic Transient Survey Applied to an Optical Search for Directed IntelligenceA. Thomas, N. LeBaron, L. Angeleri, P. Morgan, V. Iyer, P. Kottapalli, E. Mao, S. Whitebook et al. (29 authors); UCSB: P. LubinCosmology
    arXiv:2501.18903
  8. 08Mar 2025ApJ
    Evaluating Short-warning Mitigation via Intentional Robust Disruption of a Hypothetical Impact of Asteroid 2023 NT1B. Bailey, A. N. Cohen, S. Egan, P. Lubin, R. Xu, M. Boslough, D. Robertson, E. A. Silber et al. (11 authors)Cosmology
    arXiv:2310.13112
  9. 09Jan 2025arXiv
    TRIPP: A General Purpose Data Pipeline for Astronomical Image ProcessingA. Thomas, N. LeBaron, L. Angeleri, S. Whitebook, R. Darlinger, P. Morgan, V. Iyer, P. Kottapalli et al. (29 authors); UCSB: P. LubinCosmology
    arXiv:2501.18142
  10. 10Dec 2024Acta Astronautica
    Asteroid disruption and deflection simulations for multi-modal planetary defenseA. N. Cohen, P. Lubin, D. Robertson, M. Boslough, S. Egan, A. M. Stickle, E. A. Silber, P. Meinhold et al. (10 authors)Cosmology
    arXiv:2608.06494

All papers by Philip Lubin

Everyone in the group