Daniel Siegel

Research Interests

A unifying theme of my research is the pursuit to connect fundamental physics with the cosmos. I am excited about multimessenger and gravitational-wave astronomy with Advanced LIGO and Virgo and its partner facilities in the electromagnetic band and the neutrino/high-energy particle sector. My research interests cover a broad range of topics including gravitational physics, nuclear astrophysics, high-energy astrophysics, and transient astronomy. Much of my research centers around unraveling the fundamental physics and astrophysics of compact binary mergers involving neutron stars, it elucidates how such mergers and other astrophysical phenomena synthesize heavy elements in the Universe via the rapid neutron capture process, and it reflects on the broader impacts for nuclear physics and astrophysics, and the consequences for cosmology. In order to study these prime targets of multi-messenger astronomy, I perform fully general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of astrophysical systems on supercomputers, including microphysical equations of state, weak interactions, neutrino radiation transport, and nuclear reaction networks, in combination with analytical and semi-analytical modeling.

Positions Held

• 2019 - present Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Assistant Professor
• 2019 - present Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Associate Faculty
• 2015 - 2019 Columbia University, New York, Postdoctoral Researcher and NASA Einstein Fellow

Recent Publications

• Siegel D. M., Barnes J. & Metzger B., 2019, Collapsars as a major source of r-process elements, Nature 569, 241, arXiv: 1810.00098
• Siegel D. M., 2019, GW170817-the first observed neutron star merger and its kilonova: implications for the astrophysical site of the r-process, invited contribution to the EPJA Topical Issue "First joint gravitational wave and electromagnetic observations: Implications for nuclear and particle physics", to appear in EPJA, arXiv: 1901.09044
• Siegel D. M., Mösta P., Desai D. & Wu S., 2018, Recovery schemes for primitive variables in general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, ApJ 859, 71, arXiv: 1712.07538
• Horowitz C. J. et al. 2018, r-Process Nucleosynthesis: Connecting Rare-Isotope Beam Facilities with the Cosmos, topical review, to appear in J. Phys. G, arXiv: 1805.04637
• Siegel D. M. & Metzger B., 2018, Three-dimensional GRMHD simulations of neutrino-cooled accretion disks from neutron star mergers, ApJ 858, 52, arXiv: 1711.00868
• Siegel D. M. & Metzger B., 2017, Three-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of remnant accretion disks from neutron star mergers: outflows and r-process nucleosynthesis, PRL 119, 231102, arXiv: 1705.05473 (selected PRL Editors' Suggestion, selected for a Viewpoint in Physics)
• Siegel D. M. & Ciolfi R., 2016, Electromagnetic emission from long-lived binary neutron star merger remnants II: lightcurves and spectra, ApJ 819, 14, arXiv: 1508.07939
• Siegel D. M. & Ciolfi R., 2016, Electromagnetic emission from long-lived binary neutron star merger remnants I: formulation of the problem, ApJ 819, 14, arXiv: 1508.07911
• Ciolfi R. & Siegel D. M., 2015, Short gamma-ray bursts in the 'time-reversal' scenario, ApJL 798, L36, arXiv: 1411.2015
• Siegel D. M., Ciolfi R. & Rezzolla L., 2014, Magnetically driven winds from differentially rotating neutron stars and X-ray afterglows of short gamma-ray bursts, ApJL 785, L6, arXiv: 1401.4544
• Siegel D. M. & Roth M., 2014, An upper bound from helioseismology on the stochastic background of gravitational waves, ApJ 784, 88, arXiv: 1401.6888
• Siegel D. M., Ciolfi R., Harte A. I. & Rezzolla L., 2013, Magnetorotational instability in relativistic hypermassive neutron stars, PRD Rap. Comm. 87, 121302(R), arXiv: 1302.4368
• Siegel D. M. & Roth M., 2012, On the feasibility of employing solar-like oscillators as detectors for the stochastic background of gravitational waves, Astron. Not. 333, 978, arXiv: 1401.6883
• Siegel D. M. & Roth M., 2011, Excitation of stellar oscillations by gravitational waves: hydrodynamic model and numerical results for the sun, ApJ 729, 137, arXiv: 1103.0373
• Siegel D. M. & Roth M., 2010, Excitation of non-radial stellar oscillations by gravitational waves: a first model, MNRAS 408, 1742, arXiv: 1006.4803
• Foley, R. et al. 2019, Gravity and Light: Combining Gravitational Wave and Electromagnetic Observations in the 2020s, Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, science white papers, no. 295; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 51, Issue 3, id. 295 (2019), arXiv: 1903.04553
• Chornock, R. et al. 2019, Multi-Messenger Astronomy with Extremely Large Telescopes, Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, science white papers, no. 237; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 51, Issue 3, id. 237 (2019), arXiv: 1903.04629
• Aprahamian, A., et al., 2018, FRIB and the GW170817 Kilonova, FRIB Theory Alliance workshop, arXiv: 1809.00703
• Siegel D. M. & Ciolfi R., 2015, Magnetic field amplification in hypermassive neutron stars via the magnetorotational instability, in Proc. of the 1st Karl Schwarzschild Meeting on Gravitational Physics, Frankfurt, 2013, ed. P. Nicolini et al., Springer Proc. Phys. 170 (2015), arXiv: 1401.5275 (awarded Karl Schwarzschild Prize)
• Ciolfi R. & Siegel D. M., 2015, Short gamma-ray bursts from binary neutron star mergers: the time-reversal scenario, Swift: 10 Years of Discovery, Rome, 2014, Proc. Sci. (SWIFT 10)108 (2015), arXiv: 1505.01420
• Siegel D. M. & Ciolfi R., 2015, Magnetically-induced outflows from binary neutron star merger remnants, Swift: 10 Years of Discovery, Rome, 2014, Proc. Sci. (SWIFT 10)169 (2015), arXiv: 1505.01423
• Siegel D. M., 2018, Lecture Notes "Theoretical Concepts for Multimessenger Astrophysics", invited lecture series at the ICTP school "The Sound of Space-time: The Dawn of Gravitational Wave Science"
• Siegel D. M. & Mösta P., 2018, GRMHD_con2prim: a framework for the recovery of primitive variables in general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, code publication, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.1213306