Research Interests
Stellar Evolution of all types of star including rotation and magnetic fields in two and three dimensions, binary stars, population synthesis, magnetic dynamos in stars and accretion discs.
Professor Christopher Tout
Professor Christopher Tout is Director of Studies in Astrophysics at Magdalene.
In about 5000 million years time the Sun will exhaust its supply of hydrogen nuclear fuel, which has been powering it until now, and will evolve into a red giant and eventually a white dwarf. Christopher Tout models the evolution of stars, both similar to the Sun and very different, stars that manufacture the elements, stars that explode in supernovae, and stars that interact with other stars. Most stars have a companion and, when close enough, the tides these two massive bodies raise on one another cause material to overflow with spectacular consequences, particularly when one of the two is a compact neutron star or black hole. His contributions range from understanding the physics of these interactions to predicting the diversity of exotic objects formed when the millions of stars in densely populated globular clusters encounter one another.
Qualifications
BA, MA, PhD
Career/Research Highlights
Mass loss from stars, population synthesis of single and binary stars, rotation and magnetic fields in stars.
Professional Affiliations
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
Member of the European Astronomical Society
Vice-Chairman of the International Astronomical Union Commission G1 on Binary Stars
Selected Publications
“Tidal Enhancement by a Binary Companion of Winds from Cool Giants”, Tout C.A. and Eggleton P. P., 1988, Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc., 231, 823.
“Spin Down of Rapidly Rotating, Convective Stars”, Tout C.A. and Pringle J. E., 1992, Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc., 256, 269. (8 pages)
“Rapid Binary Star Evolution for N-body Simulations and Population Synthesis”, Tout, C. A., Aarseth, S., Pols, O. R. and Eggleton, P. P., 1997 Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc., 291, 732. (17 pages)
“Binary star origin of high field magnetic white dwarfs”, Tout, C. A., Wickramasinghe, D. T., Liebert, J., Ferrario, L., Pringle, J. E., 2008, Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc., 387, 897. (5 pages)