Astrophysicist at UC Berkeley. I try to make stars blow up | kenshen on https://teapawt.net/t.co/VMaLBfoPX0 and https://teapawt.net/t.co/qlYVcNweXT
San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2011
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My money is more on radiative levitation than direct pollution, but the jury is still out.
New paper, led by Klaus Werner: we show that the fastest star in the Galaxy, a white dwarf ejected from a type Ia supernova, is strongly enriched in iron and nickel! arxiv.org/abs/2408.08397 1/n
1/ New paper thread (well, new last week)! We find that most white dwarfs are born ready to explode. They just need something to hit them hard enough, which should happen when they merge with other white dwarfs. Read on for details!
arxiv.org/abs/2405.19417
7/ Check out our paper on what these two-star explosions would look like, led by an amazing grad student earlier this year. They reproduce observations well, and I expect them to match even better as we input more physics into the calculations.
arxiv.org/abs/2401.08011
Ken Shen (also bsky.social and astrodon.social) retweeted
Postdoctoral Fellowship opportunity at the CCA - Flatiron Institute, NYC simonsfoundation.org/grant/f… We are interested in a few strategic areas, including the numerical study (1D and 3D) of stellar structure and evolution, as well as stellar transients✨
Ken Shen (also bsky.social and astrodon.social) retweeted
Know someone on the job market?
5(!) faculty positions at UHawaii @UHIfA this year!!! 4 at IfA Manoa and 1 at IfA Hilo. This is part of a long-term hiring plan (3 new faculty last year). Please let particularly good folks know!
jobregister.aas.org/ad/4003d…
jobregister.aas.org/ad/7bf11…
Ken Shen (also bsky.social and astrodon.social) retweeted
We have postdoc fellowships available in the @ColumbiaThea group. Please apply!
jobregister.aas.org/ad/438d8…
Ken Shen (also bsky.social and astrodon.social) retweeted
Abstract deadline for Transients Down Under #TDU2024 is this Friday, Sept 15! #swinburne #ozgrav #transients #astrophysics #instrumentation #followup #supernovae #culturalastro #gammaraybursts #FRBs #telescopecoordination #GW @AstroSocAus
ALT poster with Australia's shape in black with Aboriginal artwork with a background of a stellar landscape (nebulae and stars), displaying dates of the conference Jan 29 - Feb 2, 2024, SOC member names, and thumbnail images including a tennis player, kangaroos in front of telescope domes, Melbourne train station, the Dark Emu in the sky, and a koala. QR code as well.
1/ Paper thread! I had a fun time exploring white dwarf physics with Simon Blouin and @spacetimekatie. Read on to find out more!
arxiv.org/abs/2308.04559
17/ If instead these binaries merge unstably, they won't be a viable supernova progenitor channel. But I think that's fine because I think a different scenario (mergers of two white dwarfs) causes Type Ia supernovae!