Research Themes
Common Envelope Evolution
Post-common envelope binaries White dwarfs Open clusters M dwarfs Machine learning
I'm primarily an observational astronomer who studies binary stars in star clusters to constrain the common envelope (CE) phase of binary evolution — a critical but poorly understood process that shapes Type Ia supernovae and gravitational-wave sources. Close binary systems are the progenitors to both phenomena, but reaching a small radial separation likely requires CE evolution, one of the largest uncertainties in binary evolution due to both computational challenges and a lack of observed benchmarks where both the pre- and post-CE conditions are known. I use a variety of surveys (e.g., SDSS, Gaia, Pan-STARRS1, 2MASS), along with ground-based (e.g., Gemini, Lick, Keck) and space-based (e.g., Swift, HST) telescopes to discover and characterize new white dwarf+main-sequence post-CE binaries in stellar clusters. In SMG+ 2024b, we used machine learning to identify 52 high-probability candidate WD+MS binaries across 38 Milky Way open clusters, and I am actively following up and characterizing individual systems to work toward a data-driven, observationally grounded picture of this uncertain evolutionary phase. In SMG+ 2026, we present a new framework for linking pre- and post-CE binary properties using star clusters, and demonstrates it on Alessi12-PCE, a newly identified WD+MS binary that is only the third detached WD+MS post-CE binary ever associated with a star cluster, and the first for which both the pre- and post-CE system parameters can be precisely constrained.
Galactic Archaeology & Star Cluster Dynamics
Globular clusters Corespray Chemical tagging Hypervelocity stars
Globular clusters (GCs) are some of the most ancient structures in the Milky Way, and their dense cores make them ideal laboratories for studying how dynamical processes shape both clusters and the Galaxy over time. Simulating these dense stellar environments in full N-body detail is computationally expensive, hence, we developed the Corespray code — a Python code for quickly simulating stellar and binary dynamical interactions in star cluster cores — which has been applied to galactic archaeology to hypervelocity stars to stellar streams and beyond. In SMG+ 2023, I combined Corespray with unsupervised machine learning and chemodynamical tagging to identify stars dynamically ejected from GC cores. In SMG+ 2024a we expanded this work into the GEMS catalogue (Globular cluster Extra-tidal Mock Stars), providing a tool for associating extra-tidal field stars with their parent Galactic GC.
Misc. Compact Objects, Transients, and Planets
White dwarfs Radio transients General relativity Planets
Beyond my binary and star cluster work, I've also contributed to miscellaneous studies of white dwarfs, compact objects, radio transients, and planets. This includes a search for massive white dwarfs in star clusters, a systematic analysis of over 350 pulses from 12 RRATs with the CHIME telescope, a computational pipeline to improve pulse timing precision using the only known double pulsar system, and observations for a study on the stellar multiplicity of M dwarfs hosting short-period giant planets.
