Wednesday Seminar Series

Come hear from Caltech faculty and JPL scientists about their exciting research! Lunch will be served to the first 100 guests.

This week features James Fuller, Assistant Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics.

Surprising Impacts of Gravity Waves

Gravity waves are low frequency fluid oscillations restored by buoyancy forces in planetary and stellar interiors. Despite their ubiquity, the importance of gravity waves in on the evolution of planets and stars is just starting to be discovered. For instance, data from the Kepler satellite has revealed gravity modes in thousands of red giant stars, providing unprecedented measurements of the core structures of these stars. I will show how gravity modes (or lack thereof) can also reveal strong magnetic fields in the cores of red giants, and I will demonstrate that strong fields appear to be common within massive stars but are absent in lower-mass stars. In very massive stars on the verge of producing a core-collapse supernova, vigorous convection excites gravity waves that can redistribute huge amounts of energy within the star. I will discuss how wave energy redistribution can drive outbursts and enhanced mass loss in the final years of massive star evolution, with important consequences for the appearance of subsequent supernovae.