The dense centers of globular clusters are home to a whole zoo of exotic astrophysical phenomena. Dr. Kremer studies the unexpected events experienced by compact objects — black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs — within these dense stellar systems. Over the past decade, the groundbreaking detections of gravitational wave signals from merging compact object binaries by the LIGO/Virgo detectors have opened a new window to the cosmos. Kyle will discuss why astronomers think some gravitational wave events originated in globular clusters, made possible by the unique dynamic activity of compact objects within these systems. He will share how the Keck Cosmic Web Imager aids in searching for new observational evidence of black holes in the Milky Way.
Guest Speaker
Dr. Kyle Kremer
Assistant Professor of Astrophysics
University of California at San Diego
Kyle Kremer is an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at University of California, San Diego.
His research group at UCSD builds connections between the fields of stellar dynamics and compact object astrophysics. Areas of expertise include N-body simulations of dense stellar clusters, detection of compact object binaries via gravitational waves (e.g., LIGO & LISA), and high-energy transient phenomena such as tidal disruption events and fast radio bursts. He is also broadly interested in binary star evolution, hydrodynamics of stellar mergers, millisecond pulsars, intermediate-mass black holes, and X-ray binaries.
Kyle grew up in Ohio and attended Northwestern University for his undergraduate studies where he double majored in physics and music performance. After undergrad, he spent three years pursuing a career as an orchestral musician (earning a master of music degree at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2015) before returning to Northwestern where he completed his PhD in astronomy in 2019, advised by Fred Rasio. After finishing his PhD, Kyle moved back to southern California as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow and then NASA Einstein Fellow at Caltech and Carnegie Observatories. He started as faculty at UCSD in Fall 2024.
