COLLABORATORS

Ignacio Araya
PhD in Astrophysics, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Assistant professor at Centro de Investigación DAiTA Lab, Universidad Mayor.
Email: ignacio.araya@umayor.cl

Publications: See Publications

Master thesis link: Repository

Research: Massive stars, stellar winds, hydrodynamics, radiative transport, numerical optimization

My primary research goals are focused on massive stars, mainly in their strong stellar winds. I use hydrodynamic codes and radiative transfer codes to model the available observational data of these stars. Also, I have worked on numerical optimization for orbital parameters of binary systems using a genetic algorithm.

Projects in execution:

  • CoI: “Winds from massive stars in spherical and oblate geometries ” Fondecyt regular Nº1230131, 2023-2027

Past recent projects:

  • PI: “Physical Parameters of Massive Stars” Fondecyt Iniciación Nº11190147, 2019-2022
  • CoI: “Stellar winds in massive stars” Fondecyt Regular Nº 1190485, 2019-2023

Alex Gormaz Matamala
PhD in Astrophysics, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Postdoctoral research at Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Warsaw, Poland.
Email: agormazm@gmail.com

Publications: See Publications

PhD Thesis

Master Thesis

Research: Line-driven winds, mass-loss, radiative transfer, synthetic spectra, evolution of massive stars.

My research is focused on the calculation of theoretical values for the wind parameters of hot massive stars (spectral type O), being mass-loss rate the most important one.

For that purpose, we look for solutions of theoretical equations describing the acceleration of the wind, consistently with hydrodynamic code Hydwind (performed by Prof. Michel Curé) in order to predict these wind parameters. In an attempt to unify all element, the theory of line-driven winds for massive stars, we currently study the impact of the small-scale inhomogeneities (the so-called clumping) over the resulting line-acceleration. This study is being done using the radiative transfer CMFGEN. Theoretical mass-loss rates calculated by us are being used to fit synthetic spectra with the code FASTWIND, reducing the number of free parameters. Besides, these new mass-loss rates are necessary to perform new evolutive tracks using the Geneva-evolutive-code (GENEC).

Projects in execution:

  • Associated researcher: Physics of Extreme Massive Stars, MSCA-RISE 823734, 2018-2022

Raquel Pezoa
Ph.D. in Informatics Engineering.
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM), Valparaíso, Chile.
Profesor Adjunto, Escuela de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad de Valparaíso.
Associate Researcher CCTVal UTFSM.
Email: raquel.pezoa@usm.cl

Publications: See Publications

Research: Machine learning, high energy physics and astronomy data analysis, biomedical image processing

Projects in execution:

  • PI: «A systematic study of the class imbalance problem in deep learning for classification of High Energy Physics data», Postdoc Proj. 3190740
  • CoI: Proyecto InES Género UV: «Transformando la cultura de I+D+i+e de la Universidad de Valparaíso desde la equidad de género y el respeto por la diversidad».

Gonzalo Farias Castro
Ph.D. in control engineering, National University of Distance Education, Temuco, Chile.
PhD. in computer science, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Madrid, Spain.
Director Escuela de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
Associate Researcher CCTVal UTFSM.
Email: gonzalo.garias@pucv.cl

Research: Machine learning, pattern recognition, simulation and control of dynamic systems, and engineering education.

GONZALO FARIAS received the degree in computer science from the Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile, in 2001, the Ph.D. degree in control engineering from the National University of Distance Education (UNED), in 2010, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Madrid, Spain, in 2013. Since 2012, he has been with the Electrical Engineering School, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV). His current research interests include machine learning, pattern recognition, simulation and control of dynamic systems, and engineering education.

Pedro Escárate
Dr. in Electrical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
M.Sc in Electrical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile.
Profesor Asociado, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
Email: pedro.escarate@pucv.cl

Publications: See Publications

Research: Electro-optics systems, Spectroscopy, Machine learning, system identification, adaptive optics

Pedro Escárate received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), Santiago Chile, in 2005 and 2009, respectively. From 2007 to 2008 he was a Researcher in the Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Rome, Italy, from 2010 to 2012 he was Postdoctoral Researchers in the Center of Astro-Engineering, from 2012 to 2016, he was Research Academic at the Electronics Engineering Department, UTFSM Chile, from 2016-2018 he was Adaptive Optics Scientist at Large Binocular Telescope, Arizona, USA.  Since 2022, he has been Associate Professor at Electrical Engineering School, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV). His current research interests include machine learning, electro-optics systems, spectroscopy, system identification and adaptive optics systems.

Massinissa Hadjara
PhD. in Astrophysics, University/Observatory of Côte d’Azur, Nice, France.
Research Scientist at Nanjing institute of Astronomical optics & Technology/Universidad de Chile.
Email: mhadjara@niaot.ac.cn mhadjara@ing.uchile.cl

Publications: See Publications

PhD thesis:

Master Thesis:

Research: High Angular Resolution, Spectro-Interferometry, Hot Active Stars, Fast Rotators, Evolved Stars, Instrumentation, Heterodyne, Fringe Tracking.

Massinissa obtained his PhD, on high angular resolution observations and study of hot active stars with optical/IR interferometry, at the Lagrange Laboratory of the Observatory/University of the Côte d’Azur(Nice/France) in 2015, where he developed SCIROCCO: Simulation Code of Interferometric-observations for ROtators and CirCumstellar Objects; a numerical code based on a semi-analytical polychromatic model for spectro-interferometric observations of fast rotators and/or pulsating stars and their circumstellar disk. He worked on several aspects of Spectro-Interferometry, in different Chilean institutions, both scientific (e.g., cool evolved stars; by developing PAMPERO: a Physical Approach of Molecular Photospheric Ejection in high-angular-Resolution for evOlved-stars; a numerical code based on a semi-analytical polychromatic multilayer MOLsphere model for spectro-interferometric observations of evolved stars) and instrumental (heterodyne interferometry), and he is currently in charge of the development of a new Optical Laboratory in NIAOT/UChile (CHARSAL; http://www.cassaca.org/en/charsal/). The main project of this Laboratory is the construction of a new J band VLTI visitor instrument based on a new generation of Hierarchical Fringe Tracker (HFT) concept in order to mainly study AGNs.

Ronaldo Levengahen
PhD. in Astronomy, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Associate Professor, Physics Department, Federal University of Sao Paulo (Unifesp) campus Diadema.
Email: ronaldo.levenhagen@unifesp.br

Publications: See Publications

Research: B/Be stars, Fast rotation,  Circumstellar disks, Spectral synthesis, Gravity-Darkening, Radiative transport.

Ronaldo Levengahen received the bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Physics Institute at the University of São Paulo (1997), the M.Sc. (2000), and Ph.D. (2004) degrees in Astronomy from the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics, and Atmospheric Sciences Institute at the University of São Paulo. Postdoctoral research (2006-2007) at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences Institute at the University of São Paulo. Since 2010 is a Professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). His current research interests include Plane-Parallel Spectral Synthesis of Early-Type Stars, Spectral Synthesis assuming Gravity-Darkening effects, and Radiative Transport in Circumstellar Disks.