Evgeny Gorbunov

I am a theoretical astrophysicist studying the physics of hot, relativistic plasma found in the vicinity of some of the most powerful objects in the Universe, such as neutron stars, relativistic jets, and the accretion disks and coronae of black holes. Although these systems span immense spatial and temporal scales, it is the small-scale kinetic processes of individual particles in plasma that ultimately shape the observable signatures of these extreme environments. My research combines analytical theory and large-scale kinetic simulations to better understand the microphysical processes that govern particle acceleration, radiation, and energy dissipation in relativistic plasmas. I am currently a member of the group led by Alexander Philippov at University of Maryland, where I investigate particle acceleration and radiation in plasma turbulence and develop new numerical tools for global simulations of neutron star magnetospheres.