Danny Steeghs
Associate professor in the Astronomy & Astrophysics group in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick.
My research interests focus on the formation and evolution of interacting binary stars. In particular I use indirect imaging techniques to map the mass flow between the two stellar components in the binary. The main goal is to understand the physics controlling the dynamics of the accretion discs that surround the accreting compact stars. Such disc-flows can be found in a wide range of environments, they determine the secular evolution of such compact binary systems and permit us to study the compact remnants of stars whether white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes.
Some more specific interests include accreting white dwarfs as supernova Type Ia progenitors, ultra-compact double white dwarf binaries, galactic plane surveys, multi-wavelength astrophysics, novel observational techniques, neutron stars and black holes in binaries. I am an observationally focused astronomer, exploiting the spectrum of facilities available to us including the Hubble Space Telescope, X-ray satellites such as XMM and SWIFT and a wide range of ground-based observatories.
If you are interested in a Ph.D position in our group, a description of current projects on offer can be found here.
Teaching
- 1st year module PX144 ; Introduction to Astronomy
- Director of Graduate Studies
- Optical spectroscopy (Part I / Part II)
- MPAGS AS2: Astrophysical Techniques
Research
- Recent research publications
- Latest preprints as posted on arXiv or full publication list (via on-line ADS search)
- The Kepler INT Survey of the Kepler field
- The IPHAS survey
- public data: early data release, do a cone search
- images: IPHAS gallery / Nick Wright's pictures
- project pages [need password]: Warwick node / Cambridge node
- project data [need password]: CfA:MMT Hectospec follow-up ; FLWO FAST spectroscopy ; CASU catalogs
- Warwick icast programme on IPHAS
- The helium-nova V445 Puppis, or as some people prefer to call it, a ticking stellar time bomb. Watch the expanding shell as resolved by adaptive optics, an artist impression of the binary system and some media coverage by the BBC, Scientific American.
- Two white dwarfs going round in 5.4 minutes, it can't get much more cosier than that ....
