Michel Curé
Dr. rer. nat. Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.
Full professor at Instituto de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso.
Phone: (+56 32) 250 5519
Email: michel.cure@uv.cl

Publications:  See Publications  

Research: Massive stars, stellar winds, hydrodynamics, radiative transport, numerical methods, astrostatistics, astrometeorology

My main line of research is massive stars, and particularly the manner in which they lose mass (stellar winds and hydrodynamics). We use different codes for obtaining the synthetic spectra of stars, Hydwind (developed by our group), FASTWIND & CMFGEN for radiative transport. We also do research in astrostatistics, applying new statistic tools for solving astrophysical problems, for example in the distribution of rotational velocities of stars or the distribution of mass ratios in binary systems. Another area we cover is astrometeorology, that is, understanding and predicting the atmospheric conditions over international observatories built in Chile. We pay particular attention to precipitable water vapor predictions and seeing.

Projects in execution:

• PI: “Winds from massive stars in spherical and oblate geometries ” Fondecyt Regular Nº 1230131, 2023-2027
• CoI: OCEANS, MSCA-RISE 101183150, 2025-2028

Past recent projects:

• CoI: Physics of Extreme Massive Stars, MSCA-RISE 823734, 2018-2024
• PI: “Stellar winds in massive stars” Fondecyt Regular Nº 1190485, 2019-2023
• PI: “Decretion disks and outflows around Fast-Spinning stars”, Conicyt Chile – FAPESP Brazil Nº 13354-1, 2020-2022
• PI: “Paseando por el Sistema Solar” Gemini-Conicyt outreach Nº 32190009, 2019 – 2021

Catalina Arcos
PhD in Astrophysics, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Assistant professor at Instituto de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso.
Phone: (+56 32) 250 8301
Email: catalina.arcos@uv.cl

Publications: See Publications

Research: Massive stars, stellar winds, Be stars, line variability

My research focuses on the study of the variability of Be stars, disk and stellar parameters, their rate of mass loss and the connection with disk formation. To do this, we created the BeSOS website: https://besos.ifa.uv.cl that contains reduced HR spectra of southern Be stars observed with the PUCHEROS spectrograph. We restrict the star parameters of 71 Be stars using stellar atmosphere modeling. Projected rotation speeds were obtained for all spectra, as well as EW, DPS, V / R in the H-alpha line.

Projects in execution:

• CoI: “Winds from massive stars in spherical and oblate geometries”, Fondecyt Regular Nº 1230131, 2023-2027
• Associated researcher: OCEANS, MSCA-RISE 101183150,2025-2028
• PI: “Talleres de física y astronomía para residencias familiares de Mejor niñez en la región de Valparaíso”, Outreach, ESO-Comité mixto 2023

Past recent projects:

• CoI: “Construyendo una comunidad más inclusiva”, outreach, ASTRO20-0044 2021-2023
• Associated researcher: Physics of Extreme Massive Stars, MSCA-RISE 823734, 2018-2024
• PI: “Long-term variability in Be stars: features of the outer disks” Fondecyt Iniciación Nº11190945, 2019-2023
• CoI: “Stellar winds in massive stars” Fondecyt Regular Nº 1190485, 2019-2023
• CoI: “Decretion disks and outflows around Fast-Spinning stars”, Conicyt Chile – FAPESP Brazil Nº 13354-1, 2020-2022
• CoI: “Elemental la fuerza de la naturaleza”, outreach, CIENCIA PÚBLICA 2021-2022
• PI: “Talleres de Física y Astronomía para residencias familiares del SENAME en la región de Valparaíso”, outreach, ESO Comité-mixto, 2021
• CoI: “Paseando por el Sistema Solar” Gemini-Conicyt outreach Nº 32190009, 2019 – 2021
• PI: “Mito & Rali in the land of stars”, outreach, ALMA-CONICYT Nº31190014, 2019-2020

Tiago Batista
PhD in Astronomy, Observatório Nacional, Brazil.
Postdoc at Instituto de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso.
Phone: (+56 32) 250
Email: tiago.souza@uv.cl

Publications: See Publications

Research: Massive stars, Modelling of Be Stars

My name is Tiago Batista Souza (Souza, T.B), I’m a postdoctoral fellow (Fondecyt/ANID) supervised by Dra. Catalina Arcos at IFA/UV. I have experience in spectroscopy, photometry and Speckle interferometry of massive stars, especially Be stars. My postdoctoral research project concerns the modelling data using the radiative transfer code HDUST of a sample of southern Be stars belonging to the BeSoS database. In addition, I will study the variability of spectroscopic line profiles and the mechanisms responsible for the formation/dissipation of viscous decretion disks. By modelling different types of data and covering a wide spectral region, I will obtain a set of physical parameters of both the central star and its circumstellar disk for many Be stars, being for the vast majority the first estimate of physical parameters. This will allow us to contribute to a better understanding of these objects.

Projects in execution:

• PI: “Modeling of classical Be Star belonging to the BeSOS database” Fondecyt postdoc Nº 3230770, 2023-2026.