Research directions / Objectives
The research activities of the team are focused in the directions of Observational as well as Theoretical Astrophysics.
- Observational Astrophysics
The observational efforts of the group are based on data obtained with Skinakas Observatory, Space observatories (e.g. Chandra, XMM-Newton, Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Herschel Space Telescope), and other major ground-based telescopes. The members of the team lead research programs in the following areas:
- X-ray emission from black holes (characterization of variability and spectra as indicators of black-hole mass and physical processes in accreting material).
- Multi-wavelength emission from accreting X-ray pulsars (connection between gas reservoir and accretion, interaction of pulsar magnetosphere and the accretion flow).
- X-ray emission from Anomalous X-ray pulsars (interpretation of their X-ray spectra in the context of accretion from a fall-back disk).
- Accreting binary populations in nearby galaxies (connection of accreting binaries and star-formation activity; the nature of Ultra-luminous X-ray sources; parameters influencing accreting binary formation and evolution).
- Mid-infrared properties of Luminous and Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs/ULIRGs) (the nature of activity in the most luminous galaxies in the Universe).
- Star formation and stellar populations in Hickson Compact Groups.
- Multi-wavelength studies of interacting galaxies (the evolution of star-formation and nuclear activity along the merger sequence).
- Extragalactic large-scale jets (study of the polarization and the magnetic field structure in large scale jets emanating from accreting supermassive black holes).
- Interstellar magnetic fields (measurment of the interstellar magnetic field in our Galaxy by measuring the polarization of background sources).
- Detection of exoplanets (intensive monitoring with Skinakas of exoplanet candidates for the identification of exoplanets and measurements of their parameters).
- Theoretical Astrophysics
The theoretical efforts of the group are focused in the following areas:
- X-ray emission from accreting black-holes (modeling the physical processes in the accretion flow, and the resulting energy and Fourier spectra).
- Anomalous X-ray pulsars (modeling of the accretion flow onto X-ray pulsars; interpretation of observational results in the context of the fall-back disk model).
- Jets from accretion flows (emission mechanisms in astrophysical jets; spectrum, variability, and polarization of resulting emission).
- Dark matter (constraints on the nature of dark matter particles by modeling their high-energy signatures).
- Physical processes in star-formation.
- Modeling the Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies (deriving the physical connection between the interstellar medium and star formation in galaxies).
- Astrostatistics (Application of statistical methods in astrophysical problems).
