Chad Bustard

Hi, and welcome to my website! I'm currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) in Santa Barbara, CA. I was previously an NSF Graduate Fellow at University of Wisconsin - Madison, where in Summer 2020 I completed my Ph.D. on "Cosmic Ray Transport and the Galaxy Gas Cycle" with my advisor Ellen Zweibel and co-advisor Elena D'Onghia.

My research focuses on plasma astrophysics. More specifically, I explore, through both analytic studies and simulations, how galactic winds expel mass from galaxies and regulate star formation; how energetic particles called cosmic rays launch galactic outflows and shape their multiphase environments; and how cosmic ray propagation can be constrained with observations. I'm also interested in the formation and survival of cold/warm gas in hot, circumgalactic environments, with one fascinating, nearby example being the Magellanic Stream.

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Publications List

Publications and CV

Education and Positions Held

2020-present

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), UC-Santa Barbara

2014-2020

University of Wisconsin - Madison

2013-2014

Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-2013

Rice University

Postdoctoral Fellow

Major projects: Simulations and theory of cosmic ray transport and influence in the multiphase interstellar and circumgalactic medium (with Siang Peng Oh); Simulations of cold gas evolution in the hot circumgalactic medium (with Max Gronke)

Ph.D in Physics, Concentration in Computational Plasma Astrophysics

Thesis: "Cosmic Ray Transport and the Galaxy Gas Cycle"

Awards: NSF Graduate Fellowship, Rodger Doxsley Travel Prize (AAS Winter Meeting 2020), Karl Guthe Jansky and Alice Knapp Jansky Award

Post-Baccalaureate Student Researcher, Theory Division (T-2)

Major project: Simulations of inertial confinement fusion (with Hui Li)

B.S. in Astrophysics and B.A. in Mathematics

Awards: Dessler Prize in Space Physics

MY RESEARCH

My Research

Within the broader fields of galaxy evolution and plasma astrophysics, my research program is defined by a few principal methodologies and topics:

Topics

Cosmic rays
Galactic winds
Turbulence and multiphase gas in galaxy halos

Methodologies

Leveraging both proprietary and open-source tools to create, analyze, and visualize terabytes of simulation data
Creating mock observations to bridge gaps between theory and observations
Exploring emerging machine learning technologies to extract insights from data

Click on the images below to learn more about a few specific subjects and projects!

Galactic Winds

Some galaxies (e.g. the M82 starburst galaxy shown in the image) can launch extended outflows of multiphase gas at speeds greater than 1000 km/s. I study how these winds are launched by supernovae and how they compare to observations. A recent focus of my work is the Magellanic system, an intriguing case-study in gas dynamics that provides a useful test-bed for models of galactic outflows.

Cosmic Rays

Cosmic rays, shown in this depiction of a cosmic ray air-shower hitting the Pierre-Auger detector, are the highest energy particles in the Universe and affect a variety of astrophysical environments. I study how cosmic rays assist the launching of galactic winds, how they structure the interstellar medium, and how they are accelerated at astrophysical shocks, including shocks produced by galactic winds.

CONTACT

Contact

Address

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California - Santa Barbara, Kohn Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93107

Email

bustard@ucsb.edu