Publications (19)
Charting the Galactic Underworld I: Comprehensive simulations of the kinematics, rates, and demographics of Milky Way black holes
Tom Wagg, Katelyn Breivik, Adrian M. Price-Whelan +3
With upcoming data from Roman, Gaia DR4, and spectroscopic surveys, we will soon have an unprecedented dataset of Milky Way black holes (BHs) to constrain their formation and evolu…
LEGWORK: A python package for computing the evolution and detectability of stellar-origin gravitational-wave sources with space-based detectors
Tom Wagg, Katelyn Breivik, Selma E. de Mink
We present LEGWORK (LISA Evolution and Gravitational Wave Orbit Kit), an open-source Python package for making predictions about stellar-origin gravitational wave sources and their…
Stupendously Large Black Hole Coalescence and Hubble Tensions
Earl Patrick Bellinger, Jakob Stegmann, Tom Wagg
Local and distant measurements of the Hubble constant are in significant tension: local measurements of the Hubble constant appear to show a Universe that is significantly contract…
Catalog of Integrated-Light Star Cluster Light Curves in TESS
Tobin M. Wainer, Gail Zasowski, Joshua Pepper +10
We present the first integrated light, TESS-based light curves for star clusters in the Milky Way, Small Magellanic Cloud, and Large Magellanic Cloud. We explore the information en…
Searching for Stellar Activity Cycles using Flares II: The TESS CVZ
Tobin M. Wainer, Holland M. Stuart, Guadalupe Tovar Mendoza +3
The paper analyzes seven years of TESS short‑cadence data for over 14,000 stars in the Continuous Viewing Zone to detect long‑term changes in flare activity, identifying 17 stars w…
Constraints on neutrino natal kicks from black-hole binary VFTS 243
Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, Reinhold Willcox, Irene Tamborra +8
The recently reported observation of VFTS 243 is the first example of a massive black-hole binary system with negligible binary interaction following black-hole formation. The blac…
Streamlining and standardizing software citations with The Software Citation Station
Tom Wagg, Floor S. Broekgaarden
Software is crucial for the advancement of astronomy especially in the context of rapidly growing datasets that increasingly require algorithm and pipeline development to process t…
Expected Impact of Rubin Observatory LSST on NEO Follow-up
Tom Wagg, Mario Juric, Peter Yoachim +6
We simulate and analyse the contribution of the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) to the rate of discovery of Near Earth Object (NEO) candidates, their submi…
Searching for Stellar Activity Cycles using Flares: The Short and Long Timescale Activity Variations of TIC-272272592
Tobin M. Wainer, James R. A. Davenport, Guadalupe Tovar Mendoza +2
We examine 4 years of Kepler 30-min data, and 5 Sectors of TESS 2-min data for the dM3 star KIC-8507979/TIC-272272592. This rapidly rotating (P=1.2 day) star has previously been id…
Close Encounters of Wide Binaries Induced by the Galactic Tide: Implications for Stellar Mergers and Gravitational-Wave Sources
Jakob Stegmann, Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, Antti Rantala +6
A substantial fraction of stars can be found in wide binaries with projected separations between and . In the standard lore of binary physics, these would…
Gravitational wave sources in our Galactic backyard: Predictions for BHBH, BHNS and NSNS binaries detectable with LISA
Tom Wagg, Floor S. Broekgaarden, Selma E. de Mink +3
Future searches for gravitational waves from space will be sensitive to double compact objects (DCOs) in our Milky Way. We present new simulations of the populations of double blac…
Implications of modern mass-loss rates for massive stars
JD Merritt, Simon Stevenson, Andreas Sander +7
Massive stars lose a significant fraction of their mass through stellar winds at various stages of their lives, including on the main sequence, during the red supergiant phase, and…
Delayed and Displaced: The Impact of Binary Interactions on Core-collapse SN Feedback
Tom Wagg, Julianne J. Dalcanton, Mathieu Renzo +7
Core-collapse supernova feedback models in hydrodynamical simulations typically assume that all stars evolve as single stars. However, the majority of massive stars are formed in b…
Rapid stellar and binary population synthesis with COMPAS
Team COMPAS, :, Jeff Riley +23
Compact Object Mergers: Population Astrophysics and Statistics (COMPAS; https://compas.science) is a public rapid binary population synthesis code. COMPAS generates populations of…
Stellar ejection velocities from the binary supernova scenario: A comparison across population synthesis codes
Tom Wagg, David D. Hendriks, Mathieu Renzo +1
The vast majority of binary systems are disrupted at the moment of the first supernova, resulting in an unbound compact object and companion star. These ejected companion stars con…
cogsworth: A Gala of COSMIC proportions combining binary stellar evolution and galactic dynamics
Tom Wagg, Katelyn Breivik, Mathieu Renzo +1
We present cogsworth, an open-source Python tool for producing self-consistent population synthesis and galactic dynamics simulations. With cogsworth one can (1) sample a populatio…
The Asteroseismic Imprints of Mass Transfer: A Case Study of a Binary Mass Gainer in the SPB Instability Strip
Tom Wagg, Cole Johnston, Earl P. Bellinger +3
We present new simulations investigating the impact of mass transfer on the asteroseismic signals of slowly pulsating B stars. We use MESA to simulate the evolution of a binary sta…
Impact of Massive Binary Star and Cosmic Evolution on Gravitational Wave Observations II: Double Compact Object Rates and Properties
Floor S. Broekgaarden, Edo Berger, Simon Stevenson +9
Making the most of the rapidly increasing population of gravitational-wave detections of black hole (BH) and neutron star (NS) mergers requires comparing observations with populati…
A new model for the continuum spectra of AM CVn binaries and multi-messenger inference with normalizing flows
Nathan Steinle, Samar Safi-Harb, Austin MacMaster +5
The paper presents a forward model that connects the physical parameters of AM CVn ultra‑compact binaries to their X‑ray, optical, and ultraviolet continuum emission, and estimates…