§ 01Research
Astrophysics research at UCSB is based in the Physics Department. It includes experimental work on the cosmic microwave background, observational work at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, and theoretical work in all parts of astrophysics. The group works closely with the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics on campus and with Las Cumbres Observatory, headquartered a few miles away in Goleta.
Fig. 1
§ 02Themes
Each theme has a page with its faculty, the objects on the sky tied to its work, recent papers and related news.
01 / 06
Direct imaging and spectroscopy of young giant planets and brown dwarfs, the orbital architecture of planetary systems, and the detectors and polarimeters that make the measurements possible, including superconducting MKID cameras built on campus.
02 / 06
How stars live and die: stellar pulsations, accreting white dwarfs, thermonuclear flashes, and the supernovae, kilonovae and tidal disruption events caught by the Las Cumbres Observatory robotic network.
03 / 06
Compact binary mergers seen in gravitational waves, neutron stars from pulsars to magnetars, strong lensing, accretion disks around supermassive black holes, and the runaway black hole RBH-1.
04 / 06
Star formation and the galactic winds it drives, the circumgalactic medium, multiphase and turbulent plasmas, cosmic rays, galaxy clusters, and dusty star forming galaxies in the early universe.
05 / 06
The first quasars and galaxies, the intergalactic medium, and the epoch of reionization, using the largest sky surveys, JWST, 21 cm cosmology and machine learning emulators.
06 / 06
The cosmic microwave background, directed energy propulsion for interstellar probes, and planetary defense against asteroids and comets.