Andrew Levan

I am an Associate Professor in the Astronomy & Astrophysics group in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick.

Teaching:

I currently teach a third year course on Cosmology, and a second year course on Global Warming. From 2013/14 I am coordinating a new interdisciplinary module on "Climate Change". Please see here for more information.

Primary Research Interests:
My principle research interests focus on gamma-ray bursts and supenovae. As the brightest explosions in the Universe by far, gamma-ray bursts can be seen across most of the visible Universe, and make powerful cosmological probes. My research into GRBs has two broad avenues. The first is to understand the progenitor systems for these extraordinary explosions, the second is to subsequently deploy them as probes of the Universe across cosmic time. GRBs are now mainly found by the Swift satellite, while my followup programme utilises the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope, as well as numerous large ground based facilities (e.g. VLT, Gemini, WHT).

More recently I have become interested in other extreme transients events, including the tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes, and new kinds of extremely bright supernovae.

Selected recent publications (see link on right for full list):

A new population of ultra-long duration gamma-ray bursts
Andrew Levan et al. 2013 ApJ, submitted

The Afterglow and ULIRG Host Galaxy of the Dark Short GRB 120804A
Edo Berger, Ashley Zauderer, Andrew Levan et al. 2012 ApJ, submitted

The properties of long gamma-ray bursts in massive compact binaries
Ross Church, Chunglee Kim, Andrew Levan and Melvyn Davies, 2012 MNRAS 425 470

Star Formation in the Early Universe: Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg
N.R. Tanvir, A.J. Levan et al., 2012 ApJ 754 46

Polarimetry of the transient relativistic jet of GRB 110328/Swift J164449.3+573451
K. Wiersema, A.J. van der Horst, A.J. Levan et al. 2012 MNRAS 421 1942

Swift J2058.4+0516: Discovery of a Possible Second Relativistic Tidal Disruption Flare?
S.B. Cenko et al., 2012 ApJ 753 47

An extremely luminous panchromatic outburst from the nucleus of a distant galaxy
A.J. Levan et al. 2011, Science, 333 199

A relativistic jetted outburst from a massive black hole fed by a tidally disrupted star
J.S. Bloom et al. 2011, Science, 333 202

On the origin of black hole spin in high-mass black hole binaries: Cygnus X-1
M. Axelsson, R. Church, M.B. Davies, A.J. Levan, F. Ryde. 2011, MNRAS 412 2260

Discovery of the afterglow and host galaxy of the low redshift short GRB 080905A
A. Rowlinson, K. Wiersema, A.J. Levan et al. 2010, MNRAS 408 383

Discovery of a new soft gamma-repeater SGR J1833-0832
E. Gogus, G. Cusumano, A.J. Levan et al. 2010, ApJ 718 331

The host galaxies of core collapse supernovae and gamma-ray bursts
K. Svensson, A.J. Levan, N.R. Tanvir, A.S. Fruchter, L.G. Strolger, 2010 MNRAS 405 57

Do Wolf Rayet stars have similar locations in hosts as type Ib/c supernovae and gamma-ray bursts
G. Leloudas, J. Sollerman, A.J. Levan, J. Fynbo, D. Malesani, J. Maund 2010, A&A 518 29

A gamma-ray burst at redshift 8.2
N.R. Tanvir, D.B. Fox, A.J. Levan et al. 2009 Nature 461 1254

Low resolution spectroscopy of gamma-ray burst optical afterglows: Biases in the Swift sample and characterization of the absorbers
J. Fynbo et al. 2009 ApJS 185 526

Late time observations of GRB 080319B: jet break, host galaxy and accompanying supernova
N.R. Tanvir, E. Rol, A.J. Levan et al. 2008, ApJ, in press

SCP 06F6: A carbon rich transient at redshift 0.14
B. Gaensicke, A. Levan, T. Marsh, P. Wheatley . 2009, ApJ, 697 129

Broandband observations of the naked eye gamma-ray burst 080319B
Racusin, J.L. et al. 2008 Nature, 455 183

New Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the counterparts to six ultraluminous X-ray sources
T.P. Roberts, A.J. Levan, M.R. Goad, MNRAS 387 73

The extreme red afterglow of GRB 060923A: Distance or Dust?
N.R. Tanvir, A.J. Levan, E. Rol, R. Starling, J. Gorosabel, R. S. Priddey, D. Maelsani, P. Jakobsson, P. O'Brien, A. Jaunsen, J. Hjorth, J. Fynbo, A. Melandri, A. Gomboc, B. Milvang Jensen, A. Fruchter, M. Jarvis, C.A. Fernandes, T. Wold, MNRAS, in press

The `DODO' survey - I. Limits on ultra-cool substellar and planetary-mass companions to van Maanen's star (vMa2)
M.R. Burleigh, F. Clarke, E. Hogan, C. Brinkworth, P. Bergeron, P. Darfur, P. Dobbie, A.J. Levan, S. Hodgkin, D. Hoard, S. Wachter, 2008, MNRAS 386 5

On the nature of the short duration GRB 050906
A.J. Levan, N.R. Tanvir, P. Jakobsson, R. Chapman, J. Hjorth, R.S. Priddey, J.P.U. Fynbo, K. Hurley, B.L. Jensen, R. Johnson, J. Gorosabel, A.J. Castro-Tirado, M.J. Jarvis, D. Watson, K. Wiersema, MNRAS, in press

A case of mistaken identify? GRB 060912 and the nature of the long short GRB divide
A.J. Levan, P. Jakobsson, C. Hurkett, N.R. Tanvir, J. Gorosabel, P. Vreeswijk, E. Rol, R. Chapman, N. Gehrels, P.T. O'Brien, J. P. Osborne, R.S. Priddey, C. Kouveliotou, R. Starling, D. Vanden Berk, K. Wiersema, MNRAS, in press

Progenitors of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts
Melvyn B. Davies, Andrew J. Levan, Josefin Larsson, Andrew R. King, Andrew S. Fruchter

A new constraint on gamma-ray burst progenitor mass
Josefin Larsson, Andrew Levan, Melvyn Davies and Andrew Fruchter, MNRAS, 376 1285

Neutron star binaries and long duration gamma-ray bursts
Andrew Levan, Melvyn Davies and Andrew King 2006, MNRAS, 372 1351

The faint afterglow and host galaxy of the short-hard GRB 060121
A.J. Levan, N.R. Tanvir, A.S. Fruchter, E. Rol, J.P.U. Fynbo, J. Hjorth, G. Williams, E. Bergeron, D. Bersier, M. Bremer, T. Grav, P. Jakobsson, K. Nilsson, E. Olszewski, R.S. Priddey, D. Rafferty, J. Rhoads, 2006, ApJ Letters 648 9

An optical supernova associated with the X-ray Flash 060218
E. Pian, P. Mazzali, N. Masetti, P. Ferrero, S. Klose, E. Palazzi, E. Ramirez-Ruiz, S. Woosley, C. Kouveliotou, J. Deng, A. Filippenkp, R. Foley, J. Fynbo, D. Kann, W. Li, J. Hjorth, K. Nomoto, F. Patat, D. Sauer, J. Sollerman, P.M. Vreeswijk, E. Guenther, A. Levan, P. O'Brien, N. Tanvir, R. Wijers, C. Dumas, O. Hainaut, D.S. Wong, D. Baade, L. Wang, L. Amati, E. Cappellaro, A. Castro-Tirado S. Ellison, F. Frontera, A. Fruchter, J. Greiner, K. Kawabata, C. Ledoux, K. Maeda, P. Moller, L. Nicastro, E. Rol, R. Starling, 2006 Nature 442 1011

The First Swift X-ray Flash: The Faint Afterglow of XRF 050215B
A.J. Levan, J.P. Osborne, N.R. Tanvir, K.L. Page, E. Rol, B. Zhang, M.R. Goad, P.T. O'Brien, R.S. Priddey, D. Bersier, D.N. Burrows, R. Chapman, A.S. Fruchter, P. Giommi, N. Gehrels, M.A. Hughes, S. Pak, C. Simpson, G. Tagliaferri, E. Vadoulaki, 2006 ApJ 648 1132

Infrared and Optical Observations of GRB 030115 and its Extremely Red Host galaxy: Implications for Dark Bursts
Andrew Levan, Andrew Fruchter, James Rhoads, Bahram Mobasher, Nial Tanvir, Javier Gorosabel, Evert Rol, Chryssa Kouveliotou, Ian Dell'Antonio, Michael Merrill, Eddie Bergeron, Jose Maria Castro Ceron, Nicola Masetti, Paul Vreeswijk, Angelo Antonelli, David Bersier, Alberto Castro-Tirado, Johan Fynbo, Peter Garnavich, Stephen Holland, Jens Hjorth, Peter Nugent, Elena Pian, Alain Smette, Bjarne Thomsen, Stephen Thorsett, Ralph Wijers 2006 ApJ 647 471

Long gamma-ray bursts and core collapse supernovae have different environments
A.S. Fruchter, A.J. Levan, L. Strolger, P.M. Vreeswijk, S. Thorsett, D. Bersier, I. Burud, J.M. Castro Ceron, A.J. Castro Tirado, C. Conselice, T. Dahlen, H. Ferguson, J. Fynbo, P.M. Garnavich, R. Gibbons, J. Gorosabel, T. Gull, J. Hjorth S. Holland, C. Kouveliotou, Z. Levay, M. Livio, M. Metzger, P. Nugent, L. Petro, E. Pian J. Rhoads, A. Riess, K. Sahu, A. Smette, N. Tanvir, R. Wijers, S. Woosley 2006 Nature 441 463

Short gamma-ray bursts in old populations: magnetars from white dwarf -- white dwarf mergers
Andrew Levan, Graham Wynn, Robert Chapman, Melvyn Davies, Andrew King, Robert Priddey, Nial Tanvir 2006 MNRAS 368 L1

All other publications via ADS

Press releases:

Earth safe from gamma-ray bursts - Royal Astronomical Society

Death of a star - PPARC

Swift detects most distant gamma-ray burst - PPARC

High redshift gamma-ray bursts - NASA