PhD in Astrophysical Sciences - Stellar Astrophysics in Princeton United States | Princeton University

Princeton has a distinguished legacy in stellar astronomy and astrophysics, dating back to the foundational contributions of Martin Schwarzschild and Bohdan Paczynski in early stellar modeling. Today, the Department continues this heritage through innovative research spanning diverse contemporary subjects. Current investigations explore supernova dynamics (Burrows), dense celestial bodies including neutron stars, pulsars, magnetars, and black holes (Burrows, Goodman, Quataert, Spitkovsky), stellar birth processes (Draine, Kunz, Ostriker, Stone), high-mass star development, stellar oscillations, and material ejection (Quataert), the initial mass function of stars (Ostriker), gamma-ray bursts (Goodman, Spitkovsky), X-ray bursts (Spitkovsky), substellar objects (Burrows, Knapp), stellar remnants (Knapp, Quataert), and accretion disks (Draine, Goodman, Kunz, Spitkovsky, Stone). Observational initiatives utilize instruments like Subaru, Apache-Point, MMT, Hubble, JWST, Spitzer, Chandra, and Magellan telescopes, while leveraging data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) - a Princeton-led initiative - and the Vera Rubin Observatory/LSST. Theoretical work focuses on simulating disk behaviors, atmospheric conditions, magnetospheric interactions, plasma physics, and explosive events using advanced computational techniques, sophisticated physical models, and high-performance computing resources. Significant computational analyses are conducted on Princeton's PICSciE supercomputer clusters and at national supercomputing facilities supported by NSF and DOE.