Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Stars are considered to be the most fundamental (macroscopic) building blocks of the universe. It is our understanding of their overall properties and evolution that allows us to deduce the age, scale, and structure of the Universe. Stellar observations can be used to probe the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions and to test the predictions derived from fundamental physical theories such as general relativity and quantum mechanics. The proposed research falls within the general realm of stellar astrophysics and is primarily concerned with the evolution of and physical phenomena associated with compact binaries containing white dwarfs, neutron stars/pulsars and black holes. Important questions that will be addressed include: (1) How can we reliably determine the ages and other properties of pulsars in binary systems? (2) What are the progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (important for determining the structure of the Universe) and which evolutionary pathways can re ruled out? (3) What is the nature of the Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources that have been observed in distant galaxies? Could they be binaries composed of black holes having masses in excess of 1000 solar masses? The other major thrust of the proposed research focuses on the theoretical evolution and observational analysis of the population of low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and planetary mass objects that can be found in the solar neighbourhood and in nearby globular clusters. Since these objects are so intrinsically faint, we will try to determine the fraction of mass that they contribute in various locations in our Galaxy. This is an especially exciting part of the astronomical research given their close relationship to the recently discovered extrasolar planets.