Disc Winds Matter

Dr. James Matthews' scientific career started in earnest at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics under the supervision of Dr. Rosanne Di Stefano. They worked on predicting gravitational lensing events in order to search for exoplanets. With his interest in computational astrophysics piqued, he transitioned to a PhD at Southampton focusing on accretion disc winds. This project forms the basis of the thesis, which in particular aims to assess how universal the accretion and outflow phenomena are across 10 orders of magnitude in mass. Nowadays, Dr. Matthews works mostly on cosmic ray acceleration at Oxford with Professors Tony Bell and Katherine Blundell.

• Introduction.-  Accretion Disc Winds.- Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer and Ionization.- The Impact of Accretion Disc Winds on the Optical Spectra of Cataclysmic Variables.- Testing Quasar Unification: Radiative Transfer in Clumpy Winds.- Quasar Emission Lines as Probes of Orientation and Unification.- Conclusions and Future Work.