Hei!

Welcome to my homepage.

About me

Well, I am Max. Born & raised in Germany where I also completed my undergraduate studies – in Berlin, specifically. I did my PhD at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics in Oslo, Norway.

Currently, I am leading the Max Planck Research Group “Multiphase Gas” at MPA. Before that, I was a Hubble fellow/postdoc at JHU and UCSB.

In my free time I like to go hiking, traveling and have some beers with friends.

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Publications

Probably the best way to see a complete list of my publications is at SAO/NASA ADS or on the arXiv.

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My Work

In a nutshell: I am a theoretical astrophysicist who worked mainly on modified gravity, Lyman-alpha observables, and small-scale (magneto-)hydrodynamic simulations.

Generally, I like to work on the interface between observers and theorists. This involves, e.g., numerical simulations & modeling.

More details about my work can be found in my publications and by clicking on the images below.

One property of Lyman-alpha (Lya) is that it is a so-called “resonant line”. This means a (neutral) hydrogen atom can absorb a Lyα photon, and emit it shortly after again. In fact this process is so short that one says the atoms scatters the Lyα photon which is shown in this animation. Read more about Lyman-alpha <a href='lya'>here</a>.
Some Lyman-alpha (Lya) emitting galaxies show a unnatural Lya high equivalent width (EW). In <a href='https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.6709' target=_blank>1406.6709</a> we studied the possibility of directional EW boosting. The map above (left) shows the values by which the EW is boosted along different directions in one of our models, and the right plot shows the cumulative distribution of these boost values.
<a href='lya'>Lyman-alpha (Lya)</a> and ionizing photons (LyC) are susceptible to the same neutral hydrogen in and around a galaxy. Lya is therefore a prime observable in order to learn about LyC escape (which is important to understand, e.g., the Epoch of Reionization). The graphic above stems from <a href='https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09482' target=_blank>Rivera-Thorsen et al. (2017)</a> where we discuss the three escape mechanisms.
Cloud crushing is fun! The panels show how a cloud of dense gas gets destroyed by a hot wind impinging on it. <a href='cloud-crushing'>More infos &amp; animations...</a>
Cooling plasma clouds can pulsate, simply contract, or <i>shatter</i>. <a href='shattering'>Find out more...(&amp; see movies!)</a>
Turbulence is &quot;the last unsolved the last unsolved problems of classical physics&quot; - and very important for astrophysics. <a href='multiphase-turbulence'>We studied the dynamics of turbulent, multiphase media.</a>
In a multiphase medium, cold gas clouds do not only fragment but can also <a href='coagulation'>coagulate</a>!

Material

During some projects I assembled some data or made some movies which might be interesting to others.

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The Research Group

I am part of the Multiphase Gas Group at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysicist.

Current group members are:

Former members:

We offer Bachelor and Master thesis projects in a wide range of topics in theoretical/computational astrophysics. If you’re interested in working with us, please contact me.

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Contact

Probably the best way to reach me is via email: maxbg mpa garching mpg de