Astronomy & Astrophysics
The Astronomy Group at Cal Poly Pomona is both very active on-campus and well-connected off-campus through collaborations with research institutions throughout California, across the country, and around the globe. The Astronomy Group maintains a dedicated computer laboratory for the use of our students, featuring powerful Macintosh computers running state-of-the-art astronomy and graphics design software packages. Students engaged in astronomy research gain a depth and breadth of knowledge in astrophysics well beyond our course curriculum and learn fundamentals of data acquisition and analysis, computer programming, communication and presentation skills.
About the Faculty
Shohreh Abdolrahimi
Associate Professor
Professor Abdolrahmi works on theoretical gravitational physics and computational general relativity. She studies black holes. Black holes are powerful enough that they warp the fabric of spacetime and serve as a natural experiment where researchers can theoretically "test" the validity of Einstein's general relativity, and investigate alternative theories. Some of Dr. Abdolrahimi’s favorite topics include classical and quantum gravity, black hole physics, large extra dimensions and black hole production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) , quantum field theory in a curved spacetime, and quantum effects in accelerated frames. Students working with Dr. Abdolrahimi study different aspects of black holes, such as the black hole properties, study the images of the black holes, and investigate the motion of charged test particle which is the basis for understanding the influence of the magnetic fields on the accretion phenomena into a black hole.
Breanna Binder
Associate Professor
Professor Binder studies the births and deaths of massive stars, both in our own Milky Way and in nearby galaxies. She uses multiwavelength observations to study X-ray binaries — star systems composed of a black hole or neutron star that is gravitationally bound to a normal companion star‚ to better understand their formation and evolution. Students working with Dr. Binder have investigated black hole binaries, supernova "impostors," and the remains of binary merger events. Dr. Binder also collaborates with Dr. Matthew Povich to study massive star clusters and H II regions.
Matthew Povich
Professor and Interim Department Chair
Professor Povich studies the formation and evolution of massive star clusters/associations and their H II regions in our Milky Way Galaxy. His research involves the analysis of large astronomical datasets obtained primarily through survey observations in the X-ray, infrared, and radio. Dr. Povich is a core member of the GLIMPSE and MYStIX research collaborations and lead scientist for the Milky Way Project. He was the first Cal Poly Pomona faculty member to receive an NSF CAREER award. Students working with Dr. Povich have pursued a variety of research projects involving star formation rates, H II regions, massive stars, protoplanetary disks, stellar wind bow shocks, citizen science, and SETI.
Coral Wheeler
Assistant Professor
Professor Wheeler's research involves running and analyzing the next generation of high resolution cosmological hydrodynamic galaxy simulations to make testable predictions for low mass (102 MSun < M* < 107 MSun) galaxies that can be used to answer important questions about the Universe by looking no further than the neighborhood near our own Milky Way, where these tiny galaxies reside. The high dark matter content and shallow potential wells of these objects make them excellent testbeds for differing theories of galaxy formation. I simulate these low-mass galaxies at high enough resolution to test the extreme end of galaxy formation physics, investigate challenges to our current cosmological paradigm, and improve galaxy formation models. Armed with these theoretical tools and a wealth of observational data, my primary research objective is to answer important questions about our Universe such as: What is the nature of dark matter? What were the conditions of the early Universe? Do our galaxy formation models accurately describe all galaxies?
Townsley, Leisa K. ; Broos, Patrick S. ; and Povich, Matthew S., T-ReX: The Tarantula—Revealed by X-Rays, (2024) ApJS, 273, 5, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/ad435c
Hopkins, Philip F.; Wetzel, Andrew; Wheeler, Coral ; et al. FIRE-3: updated stellar evolution models, yields, and microphysics and fitting functions for applications in galaxy simulations, (2023) MNRAS, 519, 315, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac3489
Muley, Dhruv A. ; Wheeler, Coral R. ; Hopkins, Philip F. ; Wetzel, Andrew; Emerick, Andrew; and Kereš, Dušan, Progenitor-mass-dependent yields amplify intrinsic scatter in dwarf-galaxy elemental abundance ratios, (2021) MNRAS, 508, 508, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab2572
Nuñez, Evan H.; Povich, Matthew S.; Binder, Breanna A.; Townsley, Leisa K.; and Broos, Patrick S., Characterizing the X-Ray Emission of Intermediate-mass Pre-main-sequence Stars, (2021) AJ, 162,153, DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ac0af8
Binder, Breanna A.; Sy, Janelle M.; Eracleous, Michael; Christodoulou, Dimitris M.; Bhattacharya, Sayantan ; Cappallo, Rigel; Laycock, Silas; Plucinsky, Paul P.; and Williams, Benjamin F., The Wolf-Rayet + Black Hole Binary NGC 300 X-1: What is the Mass of the Black Hole? (2021) ApJ, 910, 74, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abe6a9
Chick, William T. ; Kobulnicky, Henry A. ; Schurhammer, Danielle P. ; Andrews, Julian E. ; Povich, Matthew S. ; Buser, Elle R. ; Dixon, Don M.; Lindman, Michael J. ; Munari, Stephan A. ; Olivier, Grace M. ; Sorber, Rebecca L.; and Wernke, Heather N., The Wind beneath My Wings. I. Spectral Types and Multiplicity of the Central Stars Supporting Stellar Bow Shock Nebulae, (2020) ApJS, 251, 29, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/abc0e5
Vides, Christina L. ; Macintosh, Bruce; Binder, Breanna A.; De Rosa, Robert J.; Ruffio, Jean-Baptiste ; and Savransky, Dmitry, Model of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence with Coronagraphic Imaging, (2019) AJ, 158, 207, DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab40b8
Wheeler, Coral; Hopkins, Philip F.; Pace, Andrew B., et al., Be it therefore resolved: cosmological simulations of dwarf galaxies with 30 solar mass resolution, (2019) MNRAS, 489, 4447, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz2887
Jayasinghe, Tharindu; Dixon, Don; Povich, Matthew S.; Binder, Breanna ; Velasco, Jose ; Lepore, Denise M. ; Xu, Duo ; Offner, Stella ; Kobulnicky, Henry A. ; Anderson, Loren D. ; Kendrew, Sarah ; and Simpson, Robert J. The Milky Way Project second data release: bubbles and bow shocks, (2019) MNRAS, 488, 1141, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1738
Wheeler, Coral; Hopkins, Philip F.; and Doré, Olivier, The Radial Acceleration Relation Is a Natural Consequence of the Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation, (2019), ApJ, 882, 46, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab311b
Povich, Matthew S.; Maldonado, Jessica T. ; Nuñez, Evan Haze; and Robitaille, Thomas P., The Duration of Star Formation in Galactic Giant Molecular Clouds. I. The Great Nebula in Carina, (2019) ApJ, 881, 37, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab26b2
Binder, Breanna A.; Behr, Patrick; and Povich, Matthew S., Searching for Faint X-Ray Emission from Galactic Stellar Wind Bow Shocks, (2019) AJ, 157, 176, DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab1073
Binder, B. A. and Povich, M. S., A Multiwavelength Look at Galactic Massive Star Forming Regions. (2018), ApJ, 864, 126, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aad7b2
Binder, B. A., Levesque, E. M., and Dorn-Wallenstein, T., No Strong Geometric Beaming in the Ultraluminous Neutron Star Binary NGC 300 ULX-1 (SN 2010da) from Swift and Gemini. (2018), ApJ, in press (arXiv:1807.05309)
M. S. Povich, H. A. Busk, E. D. Feigelson, L. K. Townsley, and M. A. Kuhn, Candidate X-Ray-emitting OB Stars in MYStIX Massive Star-forming Regions. (2017) ApJ, 838, 61, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa5b99
H. A. Kobulnicky, D. P. Schurhammer, D. J. Baldwin, W. T. Chick, D. M. Dixon, D. Lee, and M. S. Povich, Infrared Photometric Properties of 709 Candidate Stellar Bowshock Nebulae. (2017), AJ, 154, 201, DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa90ba
Binder, B., Gross, J., Williams, B. F., Eracleous, M., Gaetz, T. J., Plucinsky, P. P., and Skillman, E. D., The Effect of Variability on X-Ray Binary Luminosity Functions: Multiple-epoch Observations of NGC 300 with Chandra. 2017, ApJ, 834, 128, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/834/2/128
H. A. Kobulnicky, W. T. Chick, D. P. Schurhammer, J. E. Andrews, M. S. Povich, S. A. Munari, G. M. Olivier, R. L. Sorber, H. N. Wernke, D. A. Dale, and D. M. Dixon, A Comprehensive Search for Stellar Bowshock Nebulae in the Milky Way: A Catalog of 709 Mid-infrared Selected Candidates. (2016) ApJS, 227, 18, DOI: 10.3847/0067-0049/227/2/18
M. S. Povich, L. K. Townsley, T. P. Robitaille, P. S. Broos, W. T. Orbin, R. R. King, T. Naylor, and B. A. Whitney, Rapid Circumstellar Disk Evolution and an Accelerating Star Formation Rate in the Infrared Dark Cloud M17 SWex. (2016) ApJ, 825, 125, DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/825/2/125
Binder, B., Williams, B. F., Kong, A. K. H., Gaetz, T. J., Plucinsky, P. P., Skillman, E. D., and Dolphin, A. Recurring X-ray outbursts in the supernova impostor SN 2010da in NGC 300. 2016, MNRAS, 457, 1636, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw119
S. Abdolrahimi, R. B. Mann, and C. Tzounis, Double images from a single black hole, Phys. Rev. D 92, 124011, (2015) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.92.124011
S. Abdolrahimi, J. Kunz, P. Nedkova, and C. Tzounis, Properties of the distorted Kerr black hole, JCAP, 12, 009 (2015) DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2015/12/009
Binder, B., Williams, B. F., Eracleous, M., Plucinsky, P. P., Gaetz, T. J., Anderson, S. F., Skillman, E. D., Dalcanton, J. J., Kong, A. K. H., and Weisz, D. R., The Chandra Local Volume Survey: The X-Ray Point Source Populations of NGC 55, NGC 2403, and NGC 4214. 2015, AJ, 150, 94, DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/763/2/128
Binder, B., Gross, J., Williams, B. F., and Simons, D., Energy-dependent orbital phases in NGC 300 X-1. 2015, MNRAS, 451, 4471, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv1305
R. L. Griffith, J. T. Wright, J. Maldonado, M. S. Povich, S. Sigurđsson, and B. Mullan, The Ĝ Infrared Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies. III. The Reddest Extended Sources in WISE. (2015) ApJS, 217, 25, DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/217/2/25
R. O. Sexton, M. S. Povich, N. Smith, B. L. Babler, M. R. Meade, and A. L. Rudolph, Extended red objects and stellar-wind bow shocks in the Carina Nebula. (2015) MNRAS, 446, 1047, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stu2143
S. Abdolrahimi, R. Mann, and C. Tzounis, Distorted Local Shadows, Phys. Rev. D, 91, 084052 (2015) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.91.084052
S. Abdolrahimi, J. Kunz, and P. Nedkova, Myers-Perry Black Hole in External Gravitational Field, Phys. Rev. D, 91, 064068 (2015) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.91.064068
S. Abdolrahimi and A. A. Shoom, Distorted Five-Dimensional Electrically Charged Black Hole, Phys. Rev. D, 89, 024040, (2014) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.89.024040
M. S. Povich, M. A. Kuhn, K. V. Getman, et al., The MYStIX InfraRed Excess Source Catalog. (2013) ApJS, 209, 31. DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/209/2/31
S. Abdolrahimi, C. Cattoën, D. N. Page, and S. Yaghoobpour-Tari, Spectral Methods in General Relativity and Large Randall-Sundrum II Black Holes, JCAP 06, 39, (2013) DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2013/06/039
S. Abdolrahimi, C. Cattoën, D. N. Page, and S. Yaghoobpour-Tari, Large Randall-Sundrum II Black Holes, Phys. Lett. B, 720, 405 (2013) DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2013.02.034
Binder, B., Williams, B. F., Eracleous, M., Gaetz, T. J., Kong, A. K. H., Skillman, E. D., and Weisz, D. R. The Chandra Local Volume Survey: The X-Ray Point-source Population of NGC 404. 2013, ApJ, 763, 128, DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/763/2/128
Binder, B., Williams, B. F., Eracleous, M., Gaetz, T. J., Plucinsky, P. P., Skillman, E. D., Dalcanton, J. J., Anderson, S. F., Weisz, D. R., and Kong, A. K. H. The Chandra Local Volume Survey: The X-Ray Point-source Catalog of NGC 300. 2012, ApJ, 758, 15, DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/15
R. J. Simpson, M. S. Povich, S. Kendrew, et al., The Milky Way Project First Data Release: a bubblier Galactic disc. (2012) MNRAS, 424, 2442. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.20770.x
L. Chomiuk & M. S. Povich, Toward a Unification of Star Formation Rate Determinations in the Milky Way and Other Galaxies. (2011) AJ, 142, 197. DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/142/6/197
Binder, B., Williams, B. F., Eracleous, M., Garcia, M. R., Anderson, S. F., and Gaetz, T. J., A Deep Chandra Observation of the Wolf-Rayet + Black Hole Binary NGC 300 X-1. 2011, ApJ, 742, 128, DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/739/2/L51
Binder, B., Williams, B. F., Kong, A. K. H., Gaetz, T. J., Plucinsky, P. P., Dalcanton, J. J., and Weisz, D. R., Chandra Detection of SN 2010da Four Months After Outburst: Evidence for a High-mass X-Ray Binary in NGC 300. 2011, ApJ, 739L, 51, DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/739/2/L51
M. S. Povich, N. Smith, S. R. Majewski, et al., A Pan-Carina YSO Catalog: Intermediate-mass Young Stellar Objects in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Mid-infrared Excess Emission. (2011) ApJS, 194, 14. DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/194/1/14
M. S. Povich, L. K. Townsley, P. S. Broos, et al., Candidate X-ray-emitting OB Stars in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions. (2011) ApJS, 194, 6. DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/194/1/6
S. Abdolrahimi, A. A. Shoom, and D. N. Page, Distorted 5-Dimensional Vacuum Black Hole, Physical Review D, 82, 124039, (2010) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.124039
S. Abdolrahimi, V. P. Frolov, and A. A. Shoom, Interior of a charged distorted black hole, Physical Review D, 80, 024011, (2009) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.80.024011
Jeltema, T. E., Binder, B., and Mulchaey, J. S., The Hot Gas Halos of Galaxies in Groups. 2008, ApJ, 679, 1162, DOI: 10.1086/587508
M. S. Povich, J. M. Stone, E. Churchwell, et al., A Multiwavelength Study of M17: The Spectral Energy Distribution and PAH Emission Morphology of a Massive Star Formation Region. (2007) ApJ, 660, 346 DOI: 10.1086/513073
E. Churchwell, M. S. Povich, D. Allen, et al. The Bubbling Galactic Disk. (2006) ApJ, 649, 759, DOI: 10.1086/507015