Benjamin C. Bromley
Professor, Physics and Astronomy
464 INSCC • 801-581-8227 • bromley@physics
Welcome to my webpage, hosted by the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Utah. I am a Professor, working in theoretical and computational astrophysics, in areas of planetary and galactic dynamics, as well as some relativistic astrophysics. Here you will find information about my research, recent courses, and other things that I do at the U of U, starting with some links that I either maintain or like:
| Black holes! | How to grow a supermassive black hole plus simulations of glowing gas near a black hole horizon. |
| Flyby | The sun might have captured planets from a passing star. Our animations show how this could happen. |
| Planet migration | A movie of a planet "falling" toward its host star in a disk of "pebbles." |
| "Geodes," etc. | Here are images from some very unscientific work that I've done. Mostly oils on canvas and/or cement. |
| And just for fun | This is the greatest site on the web. I'm just saying.... |
Teaching
| PHYS 2220 | Physics for Scientists and Engineers II (Intro E&M; 2001–2012) |
| PHYS 1905 | Einstein in the 20th Century and Beyond (Fall 2005, 2006) |
| PHYS 6720 | Introduction to Computers in Physics (Fall 1998–2000,2006) |
| PHYS 6730 | Computational Physics I (Spring 1999–2001) |
Research
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◊ Hypervelocity stars Warren Brown, Margaret Geller, Scott Kenyon, and I study the origin of hypervelocity stars, which travel through the Galaxy at speeds up to 800 km/s. They likely started out as members of binary stars in the center of the Galaxy, and got flung out when they strayed too close to the Galaxy's supermassive black hole. Their binary partners got trapped by the black hole and may eventually get consumed by it. ◊ Planet formation Scott Kenyon and I have developed a code to simulate the formation of planets. This longterm project has enabled us to understand how rocky (Earth), gaseous (Jupiter) and icy (Pluto) planets grow. Check out this MPEG animation of a planet moving through a disk of smaller planetesimals. The movie illustrates how planets can migrate toward their host star, a phenomenon that may affect the formation of planets like Earth--and not necessarily in a good way! ◊ Relativitic astrophysics Hot, glowing gas flowing near a black hole can serve as a diagnostic of the physics of strongly curved spacetime. I have worked to predict the radiation from this gas in radio waves and X-rays, and helped with Richard Price's calculations of gravity waves that are produced when two black holes slowly spiral toward one another. |
For more details, other research interests, and references, please try this link.
Service
| Director of Graduate Studies (2010–present) | Physics DoGS |
| Graduate Council (2011–present) | The Graduate School |
| Graduate Admissions Committee (2011–present) | (University-level graduate admissions) |
| Undergraduate Council (2005–2006) | Office of Undergraduate Studies |
| Misc. Departmental Committees | (Admissions, Curriculum, Futures, Policy Board, ...) |
| Referee/reviewer | Funding: DFG, NSF, NASA; Journals: Astrophys. J., Astron. J., MNRAS, Nature. |
