Research Interests & Publications:
Fields of research:
High Energy Astrophysics
My group and I use the most modern instruments in space and on the ground as well as theoretical models to research high-energy astrophysical phenomena.
We research targets such as black holes, coronally active stars, galactic and stellar winds, and gamma ray bursts, as well as the elusive intergalactic medium.
My main interests are to detect and characterize plasma under extreme conditions, e.g., just before it falls into a black hole, when it is launched to sub-luminal speeds, or when it is shock heated to millions of degrees.
Fundamental questions we are interested in are: What is the electromagnetic signal of gas near a black hole? How can we detect the intergalactic medium, where most of the baryons of the Universe are? What are the physical mechanisms behind stellar and black-hole coronae and mass ejection?
We also have an ongoing program to build gamma-ray detectors for a NASA mission to space.
Research Interests:
Observational Astrophysics: Observations of super-massive black holes, active stars, stellar winds, and supernova remnants
Experimental Astrophysics: Gamma ray detectors for space
Laboratory Astrophysics: Experiments in support of astrophysics, the study of highly charged atoms in ion traps and plasma sources
Director of Asher Space Research Institute between the years 2010-2014,
and involved through ASRI investigators in projects of Advanced Optics, Electric Propulsion, Very Low Earth Orbits, Earth Remote Sensing
