Xiaoyue Guan

Research

I am currently a postdoc in theoretical and computational astrophysics.

My research interests include:

• Black hole accretion disks, jets, observational diagnostics; BH mergers, tidal disruptions and growth.

• Protoplanetary disks, planet formation and the dynamics of planets.

• Star formation, both at low redshift and early universe.

• Plasma physics, plasma and MHD instabilities, dynamo theory.

• Turbulence theory for astrophysical fluid and its applications.

• The role of magnetic fields in the astrophysical environment, and their measurement.


Curriculum Vitae.

Numerics

I spend most of my time solving complex astrophysical fluid problems using computers (minored in CS in college ;).

I have great interest in numerical algorithms for hydrodynamics/MHD/GRMHD and enjoy CFD code design and development.

Some Highlights

1. Turbulent disk angular momentum field in an axisymmetrical model (resolution: 1024/H).
Code: HAM, a non-relativistic version of HARM.







2. Snapshots of a 16Hx20Hx10H stratified turbulent disk.
Code: mthreed, a Zeus type code with orbital advection.







3. Movie: comparison of two shearing boxes with different sizes (size ~30Mb).
Code: mthreed.







4. Snapshot from a global GRMHD black hole thin (a=0, h/r~0.05) accretion disk simulation.
Code: HARM3D. Color: log(density); lines: magenetic field.







5. Movie: evolution of an accretion disk misaligned with the black hole spin (size ~90Mb).

Code: HARM3D.