Research

I am a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University's CIERA institute. I enjoy breaking down questions from astrophysical observations into simple fluid dynamical experiments to learn more about dynamics in the Sun and other stars. Some movies of my past and current work are available online on my vimeo page; a select few are below.

Current Project 1: Surface Manifestation of Gravity Waves

I am currently studying the surface manifestation of gravity waves generated by core convection in massive stars. Convection at the core of a massive star hits the surrounding stable region like a drum, launching waves. These waves may be observable at the stellar surface, and could be used to tell us about the properties of the inside of the star. See below for a preliminary video of a simulation of the inside of a 40 solar mass star.

Current Project 2: Convective Boundaries & Penetrative Convection

Observations suggest that theoretical models underestimate the amount of mixing near the boundaries of convection zones in stars. I recently discovered that a process called "penetrative convection" might be responsible for this discrepancy, and am excited to follow up this work. A movie of a simulation with a "convective penetration zone" (between the solid black line and dashed line) is shown below.

Current Project 3: Convective Boundary Evolution

Many prescriptions for treating the evolution of convective boundaries in 1D stellar evolution models have not been verified by 3D dynamical simulations. I am interested in verifying the validity of these 1D prescriptions. Below is a movie of the evolution of a convective boundary. The orange Ledoux boundary roughly determines the maximum height where vigorous convection is present, but over time this line moves up and becomes equivalent with the purple Schwarzschild boundary.

Fun Stuff

Sometimes I study Moosive stars.

Publications (updated November 2022)

ADS Author Library
Google Scholar Profile
arXiv Author Query

  • Cresswell, I. G., Anders, E. H., et al. 2022. "Force Balances in Strong-Field Magnetoconvection Simulations". Submitted to PRF.
  • Fuentes, J. R., Cumming, A., and Anders, E. H. 2022. "Layer formation in a stably-stratified fluid cooled from above. Towards an analog for Jupiter and other gas giants." Submitted to PRF. [ADS]
  • Fraser, A. E., et al. (co-first-author). 2022. "Characterizing Observed Extra Mixing Trends in Red Giants using the Reduced Density Ratio from Thermohaline Models." Accepted for publication in ApJ. [ADS]
  • Kaufman, E., et al. (3rd author). 2022. "The Stability of Prendergast Magnetic Fields". MNRAS 517, 3. [ADS]
  • Jermyn, A. S., Anders, E. H. , et al. 2022. "An Atlas of Convection in Main Sequence Stars." ApJS 262, 19. [ADS]
  • Jermyn, A. S., Anders, E. H. , et al. 2022. "Convective Penetration in Early-Type Stars." ApJ 929, 182. [ADS]
  • Anders, E. H. et al. 2022. "Scwharzschild and Ledoux are equivalent on evolutionary timescales." ApJL 928, L10. [ADS]
  • Jermyn, A. S., Anders, E. H., Cantiello, M. 2022. "A Transparent Window into Early-Type Stellar Variability." ApJ 926, 221. [ADS]
  • Anders, E. H. et al. 2022. "Stellar convective penetration: parameterized theory and dynamical simulations." ApJ 926, 169. [ADS]
  • O'Connor, L., Lecoanet, D., Anders, E. H.. 2021. "Marginally-Stable Thermal Equilibria of Rayleigh-Bénard Convection." PRF 6, 093501 [ADS]
  • Lecoanet, D. et al. (3rd author). 2021. "Surface Manifestation of Stochastically Excited Internal Gravity Waves." MNRAS 509, 1, 132-143. [ADS, arXiv]
  • Van Kooten, S. J., Anders, E. H., and Cranmer, S. R. 2021. "A Refined Model of Convectively-Driven Flicker in Kepler Light Curves." ApJ 913, 69. [ADS, arXiv]
  • Oishi, J. et al. (4th author). 2021. "eigentools: A Python package for studying differential eigenvalue problems with an emphasis on robustness." JOSS 6(62), 3079.
  • Anders, E. H., Vasil, G. M.; Brown, B. P.; Korre, L. 2020. "Convective dynamics with mixed temperature boundary conditions: why thermal relaxation matters and how to accelerate it." Published in PRFluids. [ADS, arXiv]
  • Anders, E. H., Lecoanet, D. and Brown, B. P. 2019. "Entropy Rain: Dilution and Compression of Thermals in Stratified Domains." Published in ApJ. [ADS, arXiv]
  • Anders, E. H.; Manduca, C. M.; Brown, B.P.; Oishi, J. S.; and Vasil, G. M.. 2019. "Predicting the Rossby number in convective experiments." Published in ApJ. [ADS Bumblebee, ADS Classic, arXiv]
  • Anders, E. H., Brown, B. P., and Oishi, J.S., 2018. "Accelerated evolution of convective simulations." Published in PRFluids. [ADS Bumblebee, ADS Classic, arXiv]
  • Anders, E. H. and Brown, B. P., 2017. "Convective heat transport in stratified atmospheres at low and high Mach number." Published in PRFluids. [ADS Bumblebee, ADS Classic, arXiv]
  • Karki, S. et al. (6th author), 2016. "The Advanced LIGO Photon Calibrators." Review of Scientific Instruments (Vol 87, Issue 11). [ADS Bumblebee, ADS Classic, arXiv]

    • Contact Me

    Interested in collaborating? Send me an e-mail.


    evan.anders@northwestern.edu


    CIERA (Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics)
    Northwestern University
    1800 Sherman Ave, 8th floor
    Evanston, IL 60201
    United States

    Full CV

    Click here to download a copy of my CV (updated November 2022).