Rosalba Perna
Assistant  Professor
Dept. of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences,
and  JILA
University of Colorado, Boulder. 





                     CV : cv.pdf

 PUBLICATIONS: Full List

                              Refereed Papers

Research: Theoretical Astrophysics

High Energy -   research topics include:

  • Gamma-ray Bursts,  and in particular the effects that the X-ray/UV radiation accompanying them produce on their surrounding  gas.  This has led to the development of a radiative transfer code that  can  self-consistently track  gas photoionization and dust destruction by the burst radiation.
    Other interests concern the physics of accretion disks accreting at very high  rates and cooling through neutrino emission. These are believed to provide the ultimate source of power for GRBs. 
    Since the launch of the Swift satellite, I have also been working towards understanding the origin of puzzling and unexpected phenomena, such as the presence of X-ray flares in the early afterglow lightcurves.
    Within the context of short GRBs, my research has focused on making a connection between the theoretical predictions for the mergers of two compact objects (neutron star-neutron star and neutron star-black hole), and the observable properties of the resulting GRBs.

  • Neutron Stars,  with particular emphasis on Anomalous X-ray Pulsars and Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters, a subclass of neutron stars thought to be endowed with very large magnetic fields (and also dubbed "magnetars"). Other interests involve isolated, old neutron stars accreting from the interstellar medium, the connection between pulsars and HI supershells, the spin periods of neutron stars at birth, and the timing behaviour of accreting X-ray Binaries. 

    • Cosmology -   research topics include:

  • Gravitational Lensing and Microlensing, the latter with focus on microlensing by stars in binaries.

  • Interstellar Medium (ISM), and in particular the use of Gamma-Ray Bursts as probes of the ISM in high-redshift galaxies.

  • Foregrounds for measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background and for 21-cm experiments. Particular focus has been on the contaminating signal from the radio-emitting centers of nearby, early-type galaxies.

    •                                              

    Teaching:


  • ASTR 2030-002: BLACK HOLES  Fall 2004, Fall 2005, Fall 2007, Fall 2008

  • ASTR 1120-002: STARS AND GALAXIES  Spring 2008, Fall 2009

  • ASTR 5120-001 INTERNAL PROCESSES IN GASES - II   Spring 2006, Spring 2007

  • ASTR 3730-001 ASTROPHYSICS I - STELLAR AND INTERSTELLAR   Fall 2006

  • ASTR 6000 NEUTRON STARS   Fall 2009


    • Postdoc:

    Matthew Van Adelsberg   (09/2006-08/2008)

    Graduate students: 

     These  are students who have been recently (or currently are) involved in research projects with me.  

    Personal:

    My family   (on the day of my sister's wedding).

    Hobbies: Dance (Modern, Jazz, Tango), Music (Piano playing), Kung-Fu, travel, hiking, cycling, mountaineering, photography.

    Pictures:  Italy    -   Travel    -   Boulder and surroundings

    Bike trip  - link to a web site by Max P. with whom I shared part (2600 km) of a bike trip in Europe in the summer 1999.

    Some local links:

  • APS faculty and graduate students
  • APS colloquia and JILA seminars
  • Theatre and Dance dept
  • Music dept
  • Argentine Tango in Colorado
  • Hikes around Boulder
  • City of Boulder

    • Here  is a fun clip on Italians and the rest of Europe.

    E-mail:  rosalba"at"colorado.edu
    TEL: (303) 492-0389, FAX: (303) 492-5235
    Mailing address: 440 UCB, U. of Colorado, Boulder, 80309, USA