Wisconsin Discovery Portal

Researcher's Profile

Last Name

Lazarian 

First Name

Alexander 

Middle Initial

 

Areas of Research Expertise

* MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) theory: reconnection, dynamo theory
* Interstellar dust: alignment, microwave emission
* Interstellar turbulence: statistical studies
* Circumstellar regions and comets: polarization
* Molecular clouds: dynamics

Web site

Alexandre Lazarian's University Web Page 

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Alexandre Lazarian's CV 

Current/Active Funding

  • NSF, 2008-2011, Towards Understanding Interstellar Turbulence
  • Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, 1999-2026 Astronomy: Flexible Funds

Issued Patent(s)

 

USPTO Published Applications

Recent Publication(s)

  • "Improving the model of emission from spinning dust: Effects of grain wobbling and transient spin-up"

Hoang T, Draine BT, Lazarian A, Astrophysical Journal 715(2): 1462-1485 June 2010.  Results show that for fast internal relaxation, the peak emissivity of spinning dust, compared to earlier studies, increases by a factor of 2 for the warm neutral medium, the warm ionized medium, the cold neutral medium, and the photodissociation region and by a factor similar to 4 for reflection nebulae. 

  • "Reconnection in weakly stochastic B-fields in 2D"

Kulpa-Dybel K, Kowal G, Otmianowska-Mazur K, et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics 514: A26 May 2010.  The authors find that the resulting reconnection speed depends on the resistivity. 

  • "Velocity spectrum for HI at high latitudes"

Chepurnov A, Lazarian A, Stanimirovic S, et al., Astrophysical Journal 714 (2): 1398-1406 May 2010.  We have obtained a velocity spectral index of 3.87 +/- 0.11, an injection scale of 140 +/- 80 pc, and an Hi cold phase temperature of 52 +/- 11 K. The spectral index is steeper than the Kolmogorov index and can be interpreted as being due to shock-dominated turbulence.

  • "Diffusion of magnetic field and removal of magnetic flux from clouds via turbulent reconnection"

Santos-Lima R, Lazarian A, dal Pino EMD, Cho J, Astrophysical Journal 714(1): 442-461 May 2010.  The increase of the gravitational potential as well as the magnetization of the gas increases the segregation of the mass and magnetic flux in the saturated final state of the simulations, supporting the notion that the reconnection-enabled diffusivity relaxes the magnetic field + gas system in the gravitational field to its minimal energy state. 

  • "Turbulence and the formation of filaments, loops, and shock fronts in NGC 1275"

Falceta-Goncalves D, Dal Pino EMD, Gallagher JS, et al., Astrophysical Journal Letters 708 (1): L57-L60 Jan 2010. We present 2.5 and three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of the central region of the cluster in which turbulent energy, possibly triggered by star formation and supernovae (SNe) explosions, is introduced.

  • "Tsallis statistics as a tool for studying interstellar turbulence"

Esquivel A, Lazarian A, Astrophysical Journal 710(1): 125-132 Feb 2010.  From column density maps, the authors found the parameters that fit to Tsallis distributions and demonstrated that these parameters vary with the sonic and Alfven Mach numbers of turbulence.

Recent Artistic Works

 

Collaboration

  • University of Toronto, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
  • George Mason University, Physics and Astronomy
  • University of New Hampshire

Research Tools

  • Statistics code to diagnose turbulence inside interstellar medium

Research Facilities

  • Space Astronomy Laboratory

E-mail Address

lazarian@astro.wisc.edu 

Phone Number

(608) 262-1715 

Current University

UW - Madison 

Department

Astronomy / Physics 

Title

Professor 

Other Appointments

 

Address Line 1

4503 Sterling Hall 

Address Line 2

475 North Charter Street 

City

Madison 

State

WI 

Zip Code

53706 

Bachelor's Degree

BS, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Astrophysics, 1986

Master's Degree

MS, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Theoretical Physics, 1988

PhD

PhD, University of Cambridge, Applied Mathematics, 1995

Other Degrees

Fellow, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, 1999
Postdoctoral Research, Princeton University, 1998
Fellow, University of Texas, 1995

Technologies Available for Licensing

Attachments
Created at 6/12/2007 2:07 PM  by Mindy Dawson 
Last modified at 6/8/2010 2:47 PM  by EXTWEB\alarson