Interests

In general, I am interested in the formation and evolution of exoplanets. I am currently approaching this problem from two directions: from the start and from the end. My main thesis focuses on the start of planet formation, considering protoplanetary disks and the steps that lead dust grains to accrete into protoplanets. I also work on exoplanet demographics, using the population of outer gas giants to teaser out important processes in planet formation and evolution. Beyond these projects, I am generally interested in interesting problems relating to exoplanets and solar system objects, typically dynamics focused, but not always. In the past I have worked on Uranus’ rings and disintegrating ultra-short period planets. ...

September 21, 2025

Gas Giants and their Friends

Gas giants, the largest type of planet, dominate the systems they inhabit, thus it is crucial to understand gas giants, not only by themselves, but also in the context of the systems they live in. Using data from the NASA exoplanet archive, we have assembled a sample of over 900 exoplanetary systems to determine occurrence rates of gas giants in systems with other planets. We also explore how these occuerrence rates depend on stellar properties like mass and metallicity. We also analyze how gas giant properties, such as mass, semi-major axis and eccentricity vary with inner planet type. ...

September 21, 2025

Nonlinear Microwave Impedance Microscopy

Microwave impedance miceroscopy (MIM) is a scanning microscopy techique where the reflection of microwave signals is used to determine materical properties at nanometer scales. MIM is performed in the linear case, where the reflection is measured at the same frequency as the original signal. We extend this to the nonlinear case where higher harmonics of the orginal signal are measured. We derive an equation relating the reflected signal to MIM circuit properties in order to optimize the nonlinear MIM setup. ...

September 21, 2025

Chaotic Winds from a Dying World

KIC-12557548b is an ultra-short period planet whose transits were found to vary wildly in depth from orbit to orbit. These erratic changes, combined with a transit profile indicative of a dusty tail, lead to a model where the planet orbits while being vapourized by its host star. We put forth a simple model to explain the erratic changes in transit depth through varying cycles of warming from clear skies and cooling from intense dust cover. We show that if you consider that only clear grains condense when it is hot, and darker grains condense when it is cooler, chaotic behaviour can arise in our model. This model is an important first step of understanding the time dependent behaviour of these systems. ...

September 21, 2025