James Fuller

"Professor Jim Fuller is a theoretical astrophysicist based at CalTech with a broad range of interests, including angular momentum transport in stars, pre-supernova outbursts in massive stars, tides in exoplanetary and stellar systems, and asteroseismology, among many other topics."
- Kevin Burdge

Stars, planets, and compact objects orbiting with small separations are some of the most interesting and important systems in astrophysics. In short-period binary stars, the tidal distortion of the star can greatly affect stellar pulsations. I will show that tidally distorted stars become “tri-axial” pulsators, causing pulsation amplitude modulation that may allow for a new type of asteroseismic analysis. In other cases, the stellar pulsations indicate that some stars in close binaries rotate extremely slowly, demonstrating such stars are trapped in an unusual spin-orbit equilibrium known as a Cassini state. In short-period exoplanet systems, resonances between stellar oscillations and the planet’s orbit can be sustained by a resonance locking process, driving inward migration of the planet until it is consumed. Finally, white dwarfs in short-period binaries provide a novel opportunity to measure the orbital decay that occurs during the common-envelope phase leading to their formation, providing new insights into the formation of gravitational wave sources.