Ross Church
Senior lecturer
Astrophysics
I am a lecturer in Astrophysics at the Department of Physics, Lund University.
Research interests
I study the physics of stars and stellar systems, their evolution, and the astronomical consquences. In particular I am interested in:
- The dynamics of stellar clusters, the build-up of the Milky Way and the origin of the Sun,
- High-energy astrophysical phenomena, such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and gravitational waves, and
- Stellar nucleosynthesis, and the measurement and use of stars' elemental abundances.
My work is funded by, amongst others, The Swedish Research Council, The Swedish National Space Board, The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and the eSSENCE collaboration.
Large collaborative projects that I am involved with are the LISA gravitational wave observatory, where I am the Swedish representative on the consortium board, and 4MOST, where I am one of the co-leads of the analysis pipeline for stellar spectra.
Teaching
I teach part of the following courses:
- Stellar structure and evolution (ASTM25) (main lecturer and course responsible)
- High-energy astrophysics (ASTM12) (main lecturer and course responsible)
- Galaxies and cosmology (ASTA33) (co-lecturer)
- Basic Statistical Physics and Quantum Statistics (FYSB23) (co-lecturer)
- Nuclear physics (one lecture)
I also supervise master and bachelor projects in astrophysics.
Contact
- Email: ross [at] astro [dot] lu [dot] se (ross[at]astro[dot]lu[dot]se)
- Phone: +46 46 222 1609
- Post: Lund Observatory, Box 43, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
- In person: Sölvegatan 27, office B220
Brief professional biography
I have been working at Lund University since 2009, and have been a lecturer since 2018. During 2011 and 2012 my work in Lund was funded by a Marie Curie fellowship; during 2009 and 2010 I was funded by the Wenner-Gren foundation. Prior to that I was a research fellow in the School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University. My undergraduate education was in physics and my PhD in astronomy at Cambridge University.
Publications
Displaying of publications. Sorted by year, then title.
A Wide Metallicity Range for Gyr-old Stars in the Nuclear Star Cluster
B. Thorsbro, R. Forsberg, G. Kordopatis, A. Mastrobuono-Battisti, R. P. Church, et al.
(2023) Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1
Journal articleThe effects of Galactic model uncertainties on LISA observations of double neutron stars
Anatole Storck, Ross P. Church
(2023) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 521 p.2368-2377
Journal articleThe Meridian S03E04 : Finding the way using starlight
Anna Arnadottir, Marie Dacke, Rebecca Forsberg, Nicholas Borsato, Ross Church, et al.
(2023)
ExhibitionThe Meridian S03E03 : Planetary systems beyond our own
Anna Arnadottir, Judith Korth, Rebecca Forsberg, Nicholas Borsato, Ross Church, et al.
(2023)
ExhibitionThe Meridian S03E02 : The Hunt for Dark Matter
Anna Arnadottir, Rebecca Forsberg, Nicholas Borsato, Ruth Pöttgen, Ross Church, et al.
(2023)
ExhibitionAstrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
Pau Amaro-Seoane, Abbas Askar, Ross Church, Melvyn B. Davies, Alejandro Vigna-Gómez
(2023) Living Reviews in Relativity, 26
Journal article reviewThe Meridian S03E01 : Human Exploration of Space
Anna Arnadottir, Rebecca Forsberg, Nicholas Borsato, Jim Pawelczyk, Ross Church, et al.
(2023)
ExhibitionInfluence of tidal dissipation on outcomes of binary–single encounters between stars and black holes in stellar clusters
Lucas Hellström, Abbas Askar, Alessandro A. Trani, Mirek Giersz, Ross P. Church, et al.
(2022) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 517 p.1695-1708
Journal articleTransients from ONe white dwarf - neutron star/black hole mergers
Alexey Bobrick, Yossef Zenati, Hagai Perets, Melvyn B Davies, Ross Church
(2022) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 510 p.3758-3777
Journal articleFormation of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei – II. Retention and growth of seed intermediate-mass black holes
Abbas Askar, Melvyn B Davies, Ross Church
(2022) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 511 p.2631-2647
Journal article4MOST : the 4-metre multi-object spectroscopic telescope project in the assembly, integration and test phase
Roelof S. de Jong, Elmo Tempel, Sofia Feltzing, Thomas Bensby, Ross Church, et al.
(2022) Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 12184
Conference paperThe Meridian S02E00 : The Winter Solstice special episode
Anna Arnadottir, Rebecca Forsberg, Nicholas Borsato, Johan Appelgren, Alvaro Segovia Otero, et al.
(2021)
ExhibitionClose stellar encounters at the Galactic Centre - I. The effect on the observed stellar populations
Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti, Ross P. Church, Melvyn B. Davies
(2021) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 505 p.3314-3328
Journal articleFormation of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei – I. Delivering seed intermediate-mass black holes in massive stellar clusters
Abbas Askar, Melvyn B. Davies, Ross P. Church
(2021) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 502 p.2682-2700
Journal articleStellar escapers from M67 can reach solar-like Galactic orbits
Timmi G. Jørgensen, Ross P. Church
(2020) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 492 p.4959-4974
Journal articleSuper-Earth ingestion can explain the anomalously high metal abundances of M67 Y2235
Ross P. Church, Alexander J. Mustill, Fan Liu
(2020) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 491 p.2391-2402
Journal articleMerger rates in primordial black hole clusters without initial binaries
Valeriya Korol, Ilya Mandel, M. Coleman Miller, Ross P. Church, Melvyn B. Davies
(2020) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 496 p.994-1000
Journal articleThe GALAH survey : Multiple stars and our Galaxy: I. A comprehensive method for deriving properties of FGK binary stars
G. Traven, S. Feltzing, T. Merle, M. Van Der Swaelmen, K. Cotar, et al.
(2020) Astronomy and Astrophysics, 638
Journal article4MOST Consortium Survey 4: Milky Way Disc and Bulge High-Resolution Survey (4MIDABLE-HR)
T. Bensby, M. Bergemann, J. Rybizki, B. Lemasle, L. Howes, et al.
(2019) Messenger, 175 p.35-38
Journal article4MOST Consortium Survey 3: Milky Way Disc and Bulge Low-Resolution Survey (4MIDABLE-LR)
C. Chiappini, I. Minchev, E. Starkenburg, F. Anders, N.~G. Fusillo, et al.
(2019) The Messenger, 175 p.30-34
Journal article4MOST Survey Strategy Plan
G. Guiglion, Chiara Battistini, C.~P.~M. Bell, Thomas Bensby, Thomas Boller, et al.
(2019) Messenger, 175 p.17-21
Journal article4MOST Consortium Survey 2: The Milky Way Halo High-Resolution Survey
Norbert Christleib, Chiara Battistini, P Bonifacio, E. Caffau, Hans-Günter Ludwig, et al.
(2019) Messenger, 175 p.26-29
Journal article4MOST Scientific Operations
C.~J. Walcher, Manda Banerji, Chiara Battistini, C.~P.~M. Bell, Olga Bellido-Tirado, et al.
(2019) Messenger, 175 p.12-16
Journal articleEstimating stellar ages and metallicities from parallaxes and broadband photometry : Successes and shortcomings
Louise M. Howes, Lennart Lindegren, Sofia Feltzing, Ross P. Church, Thomas Bensby
(2019) Astronomy and Astrophysics, 622
Journal article4MOST: Project overview and information for the First Call for Proposals
O. Agertz, A.~A. Berbel, J. Aird, A. Amarsi, F. Anders, et al.
(2019) The Messenger, 175 p.3-11
Journal articleBenchmark ages for the Gaia benchmark stars
Christian L. Sahlholdt, Sofia Feltzing, Lennart Lindegren, Ross P. Church
(2019) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 482 p.895-920
Journal articleRapid destruction of protoplanetary discs due to external photoevaporation in star-forming regions
Rhana B Nicholson, Richard J Parker, Ross P Church, Melvyn B Davies, Niamh M Fearon, et al.
(2019) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 485 p.4893-4905
Journal articleThe ecology of the galactic centre : Nuclear stellar clusters and supermassive black holes
Melvyn B. Davies, Abbas Askar, Ross P. Church
(2019) Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 14 p.80-83
Journal articleThermohaline Mixing in Extremely Metal-poor Stars
Kate Henkel, Amanda I. Karakas, Andrew R. Casey, Ross P. Church, John C. Lattanzio
(2018) Astrophysical Journal Letters, 863
Journal articleFormation Constraints Indicate a Black Hole Accretor in 47 Tuc X9
Ross P. Church, Jay Strader, Melvyn B. Davies, Alexey Bobrick
(2017) Astrophysical Journal Letters, 851
Journal articleMass transfer in white dwarf-neutron star binaries
Alexey Bobrick, Melvyn B. Davies, Ross P. Church
(2017) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 467 p.3556-3575
Journal articleGravitational scattering of stars and clusters and the heating of the Galactic disk
Bengt Gustafsson, Ross P. Church, Melvyn B. Davies, Hans Rickman
(2016) Astronomy and Astrophysics, 593
Journal articleGaiaNIR: Combining optical and Near-Infra-Red (NIR) capabilities with Time-Delay-Integration (TDI) sensors for a future Gaia-like mission
David Hobbs, Erik Høg, Alcione Mora, Cian Crowley, Paul McMillan, et al.
(2016) arXiv.org , p.1609-07325
Journal articleLong-term stability of the HR 8799 planetary system without resonant lock
Y. Götberg, M.~B. Davies, A.~J. Mustill, A. Johansen, R.~P. Church
(2016) Astronomy & Astrophysics, 592 p.147-147
Journal articleHubble Space Telescope observations of the host galaxies and environments of calcium-rich supernovae
J. D. Lyman, A. J. Levan, P. A. James, C. R. Angus, R. P. Church, et al.
(2016) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 458 p.1768-1777
Journal articleStability of Mass Transfer in Eccentric Compact Binaries
Alexey Bobrick, Melvyn B Davies, Ross Church
(2015) Stability of Mass Transfer in Eccentric Compact Binaries
Conference paperOn the numerical treatment and dependence of thermohaline mixing in red giants
J. C. Lattanzio, L. Siess, Ross Church, G. Angelou, R. J. Stancliffe, et al.
(2015) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 446 p.2673-2688
Journal articleClose encounters involving free-floating planets in star clusters
Long Wang, M. B. N. Kouwenhoven, Xiaochen Zheng, Ross Church, Melvyn B Davies
(2015) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 449 p.3543-3558
Journal articleDiagnostics of stellar modelling from spectroscopy and photometry of globular clusters
George C. Angelou, Valentina D'Orazi, Thomas N. Constantino, Ross Church, Richard J. Stancliffe, et al.
(2015) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 450 p.2423-2440
Journal articleMonash chemical yields project (Monχey) element production in low- and intermediate-mass stars
Carolyn L. Doherty, John Lattanzio, George Angelou, Simon W. Campbell, Ross Church, et al.
(2015) Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 11 p.164-165
Journal articleHV2112, a Thorne-A >> ytkow object or a super asymptotic giant branch star
Christopher A. Tout, Anna N. Zytkow, Ross Church, Herbert H. B. Lau, Carolyn L. Doherty, et al.
(2014) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 445 p.36-40
Journal articleThe PLATO 2.0 mission
H. Rauer, C. Catala, C. Aerts, T. Appourchaux, W. Benz, et al.
(2014) Experimental Astronomy, 38 p.249-330
Journal articleWhich physics determines the location of the mean molecular weight minimum in red giants?
Ross Church, John Lattanzio, George Angelou, Christopher A. Tout, Richard J. Stancliffe
(2014) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 443 p.977-984
Journal articleSupernova enrichment and dynamical histories of solar-type stars in clusters
Richard J. Parker, Ross Church, Melvyn B Davies, Michael R. Meyer
(2014) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 437 p.946-958
Journal articleA fossil winonaite-like meteorite in Ordovician limestone: A piece of the impactor that broke up the L-chondrite parent body?
Birger Schmitz, Gary R. Huss, Matthias Meier, Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Ross Church, et al.
(2014) Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 400 p.145-152
Journal articleThe progenitors of calcium-rich transients are not formed in situ
J. D. Lyman, A. J. Levan, Ross Church, Melvyn B Davies, N. R. Tanvir
(2014) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 444 p.2157-2166
Journal articleProperties of long gamma-ray bursts from massive compact binaries.
Ross Church, Andrew J Levan, Melvyn B Davies, Chunglee Kim
(2013) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Science, 371
Journal articleThe properties of long gamma-ray bursts in massive compact binaries
Ross Church, Chunglee Kim, Andrew J. Levan, Melvyn B Davies
(2012) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 425 p.470-476
Journal articleInteracting Compact Binaries: Modeling Mass Transfer in Eccentric Systems
Ross Church, Melvyn B Davies, Alexey Bobrick, C. A. Tout
(2012) Advances in Computational Astrophysics: methods, tools, and outcomes, 453 p.175-178
Conference paperCan planetary instability explain the Kepler dichotomy?
Anders Johansen, Melvyn B Davies, Ross Church, Viktor Holmelin
(2012) Astrophysical Journal, 758
Journal articleThe Role of Thermohaline Mixing in Intermediate- and Low-Metallicity Globular Clusters
George C. Angelou, Richard J. Stancliffe, Ross Church, John C. Lattanzio, Graeme H. Smith
(2012) Astrophysical Journal, 749
Journal articleMass transfer in compact binaries
Alexey Bobrick, Melvyn B Davies, Ross Church
(2012) Mass transfer in compact binaries
Conference paperThermohaline Mixing And Its Role In The Evolution Of Carbon And Nitrogen Abundances In Globular Cluster Red Giants: The Test Case Of Messier 3
George C. Angelou, Ross Church, Richard J. Stancliffe, John C. Lattanzio, Graeme H. Smith
(2011) Astrophysical Journal, 728
Journal articleCoordinates and 2MASS and OGLE identifications for all stars in Arp's 1965 finding chart for Baade's Window
Ross Church, J. A. Johnson, Sofia Feltzing
(2011) Astronomy & Astrophysics, 529
Journal articleOn the origin of black hole spin in high-mass black hole binaries: Cygnus X-1
Magnus Axelsson, Ross Church, Melvyn B Davies, Andrew J. Levan, Felix Ryde
(2011) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 412 p.2260-2264
Journal articleThe Experience of GPU Calculations at Lunarc
Anders Sjöström, Jonas Lindemann, Ross Church
(2011) Integrated Modeling of Complex Optomechanical Systems, 8336 p.83360-83360
Conference paperImplications for the origin of short gamma-ray bursts from their observed positions around their host galaxies
Ross Church, Andrew J. Levan, Melvyn B Davies, Nial Tanvir
(2011) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 413 p.2004-2014
Journal articleThe Impact of Stellar Collisions in the Galactic Center
Melvyn B Davies, Ross Church, Daniel Malmberg, Serge Nzoke Baman, J. Dale, et al.
(2011) The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies, 439 p.212-221
Conference paperBarium stars revisited
Tyl Dermine, Robert G. Izzard, Alain Jorissen, Ross P. Church
(2010) International Conference on Binaries - In Celebration of Ron Webbink's 65th Birthday, 1314 p.61-62
Conference paperThermohaline mixing and the variation of [C/Fe] with magnitude in M3
George C. Angelou, John C. Lattanzio, Ross P. Church, Richard J. Stancliffe, David S. Dearborn, et al.
(2010) Proceedings of Science
Conference paperWhite-dwarf kicks and implications for barium stars
R. G. Izzard, T. Dermine, Ross Church
(2010) Astronomy & Astrophysics, 523
Journal articleWhy do low-mass stars become red giants?
Richard J. Stancliffe, Alessandro Chieffi, John C. Lattanzio, Ross P. Church
(2009) Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 26 p.203-208
Journal articleMONTAGE : AGB nucleosynthesis with full s-process calculations
R. P. Church, S. Cristallo, John C. Lattanzio, Richard J. Stancliffe, O. Straniero, et al.
(2009) Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 26 p.217-224
Journal articleN-body simulations with live stellar evolution
Ross P. Church, Christopher A. Tout, Jarrod R. Hurley
(2009) Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 26 p.92-102
Journal articleThe depletion of carbon by extra mixing in metal-poor giants
Richard J. Stancliffe, Ross P. Church, George C. Angelou, John C. Lattanzio
(2009) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 396 p.2313-2318
Journal articleMass transfer in eccentric binaries: the new oil-on-water smoothed particle hydrodynamics technique
Ross P. Church, Johann Dischler, Melvyn B Davies, Christopher A. Tout, Tim Adams, et al.
(2009) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 395 p.1127-1134
Journal articleRed giant stellar collisions in the Galactic Centre
James E. Dale, Melvyn B Davies, Ross P. Church, Marc Freitag
(2009) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 393 p.1016-1033
Journal articleThe workings of a Stellar evolution code
Ross Church
(2008) Lecture Notes in Physics, 760 p.333-345
Book chapterDynamics of galactic nuclei: mass segregation and collisions
Marc Freitag, James E. Dale, Ross P. Church, Melvyn B Davies
(2008) Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 245 p.211-214
Conference paperThe nature of hypervelocity stars as inferred from their Galactic trajectories
Karl M. Svensson, Ross P. Church, Melvyn B Davies
(2008) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 383 p.15-19
Journal articleClose encounters in young stellar clusters: implications for planetary systems in the solar neighbourhood
Daniel Malmberg, Francesca De Angeli, Melvyn B Davies, Ross P Church, Dougal Mackey, et al.
(2007) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 378 p.1207-1216
Journal articleHD 61396 : An unusual mass-transfer RS CVn binary
R. F. Griffin, R. P. Church, Christopher A. Tout
(2006) New Astronomy, 11 p.431-436
Journal articleDetailed models of the binary pulsars J1141-6545 and B2303+46
Ross P. Church, Stephanie J. Bush, Christopher A. Tout, Melvyn B Davies
(2006) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 372 p.715-727
Journal article