Victoria M. Kaspi
McGill University
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Primary Section: 12, Astronomy Secondary Section: 13, Physics Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2010)
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Research Interests
I am an observational astrophysicist specializing in the study of neutron stars. My work uses both ground-based radio telescopes as well as space-based X-ray telescopes to understand the surprising variety of observational manifestations of neutron stars, ranging from conventional rotation-powered pulsars to dramatic, exploding magnetars. One common theme of my research has been to try to unite these manifestations in a coherent observational and ultimately physical framework. We study magnetars -- the most highly magnetized neutron stars known -- and have shown that they have rotational properties common to their low-magnetic field counterparts. We have studied otherwise normal rotation-powered pulsars and shown that in some ways they can behave like magnetars. We have also done detailed population synthesis studies that try to understand the true underlying Galactic population given the biases in the observed population. In addition, we have used radio pulsar timing as a tool to study a variety other astrophysical topics, ranging from stellar binary evolution, to kicks in supernova explosions, to tests of General Relativity.
