WELCOME! to the web site of Phil Armitage at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and a Fellow at JILA. My research focuses on the formation and early evolution of extrasolar planetary systems, and the astrophysics of black holes. I am on sabbatical during the 2009-2010 academic year, but my normal teaching includes a range of primarily upper division undergraduate and graduate classes.

RESEARCH INTERESTS RECENT PAPERS (LAST 12 MONTHS)
Planet formation and protoplanetary disk evolution
Theoretical studies of the evolution of protoplanetary disks, the formation of massive planets, and the dynamics of extrasolar planetary systems. Recent work has included simulations of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks, and dynamical studies of the possible coupling between massive and terrestrial planet formation.

Accretion disk theory
Theoretical and computational studies aimed at elucidating the basic physics of accretion flows, and developing links with observational diagnostics of accretion in AGN and GRBs. Ongoing work is exploring the formation of stars near the Galactic Center, the formation of supermassive black holes at high redshift, and the role of gas in binary black hole mergers.

Time-dependent models of the structure and evolution of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs, W.K.M. Rice, & P.J. Armitage, MNRAS, in press
Planet-planet scattering in planetesimal disks, S.N. Raymond, P.J. Armitage, & N. Gorelick, ApJ, 699, L88 (2009)
Planet-planet scattering leads to tightly packed planetary systems, S.N. Raymond, R. Barnes, D. Veras, P.J. Armitage, N. Gorelick, & R. Greenberg, ApJ, 696, L98 (2009)
Massive black hole binary mergers within sub-pc scale gas discs, J. Cuadra, P.J. Armitage, R.D. Alexander & M.C. Begelman, MNRAS, 393, 1423 (2009)
Extrasolar planet eccentricities from scattering in the presence of residual gas disks, N. Moeckel, S.N. Raymond & P.J. Armitage, ApJ, 688, 1361 (2008)
Microphysical dissipation, turbulence and magnetic fields in hyper-accreting discs, E.M. Rossi, P.J. Armitage & K. Menou, MNRAS, 391, 922 (2008)
Mean motion resonances from planet-planet scattering, S.N. Raymond, R. Barnes, P.J. Armitage, & N. Gorelick, ApJ, 687, L107 (2008)
Binary formation and mass function variations in fragmenting discs with short cooling times, R.D. Alexander, P.J. Armitage & J. Cuadra, MNRAS, 389, 1655 (2008)
Interaction of the magnetorotational instability with hydrodynamic turbulence in accretion disks, J.C. Workman & P.J. Armitage, ApJ, 685, 406 (2008)
Stellar dynamical evidence against a cold disc origin for stars in the Galactic Centre, J. Cuadra, P.J. Armitage & R.D. Alexander, MNRAS, 388, L64 (2008)
Quasistars: Accreting black holes inside massive envelopes, M.C. Begelman, E.M. Rossi & P.J. Armitage, MNRAS, 387, 1649 (2008)
STUDENTS & POSTDOCS TALKS & PUBLICATIONS
I am currently working with University of Colorado graduate students Jared Workman and Anna Hughes, and with postdoctoral fellow Sean Raymond.

Past members of my group include former student Dimitri Veras (now a postdoc at the University of Florida), and postdoc Ken Rice (now on the faculty at the University of Edinburgh). Other collaborators include former Colorado postdocs Richard Alexander (Leiden), Daniel Proga (UNLV), Jorge Cuadra (MPA) and Elena Rossi (Racah Institute).

A complete list of my published papers is available via the ADS database. Recent review articles include:
  • Lecture notes on the formation and early evolution of planetary systems
  • Stars in the making (commentary for Science)

    My graduate level textbook Astrophysics of Planet Formation is scheduled for publication by Cambridge University Press in November 2009.

  • TEACHING EXTRASOLAR PLANETS
    ASTR 1120: General Astronomy (Spring 2005)
    ASTR 3300: Extraterrestrial Life (Spring 2008)
    ASTR 3730: Astrophysics 1 (Fall 2007)
    ASTR 3830: Astrophysics 2 (Spring 2007)
    ASTR 5110: Internal Processes 1 (Fall 2005)
    ASTR 5120: Radiative and Dynamical Processes (Spring 2009)
    ASTR 5700: Stellar Structure and Evolution (Fall 2002)
    ASTR 5820: Solar System Dynamics and Origins (Fall 2008)
    ASTR 6000: Disks around Stars (Fall 2002 graduate seminar)
    ASTR 6000: Gamma-ray bursts (Fall 2004 graduate seminar)
    ASTR 6000: Black Hole Formation (Spring 2007 graduate seminar)
    ASTR 6000: Galactic Center (Spring 2008 graduate seminar)
    Plots of the orbital parameters of currently known extrasolar planets.
    Planet Formation and Migration - a popular article I curate for Scholarpedia.

    NEW! Presentations on "Planet Formation" given as part of the XIII Ciclo de Cursos Especiais (a summer school for South American graduate students) at the Observatório Nacional, Rio de Janeiro in 2008:
    Lecture 1: Observations of planetary systems
    Lecture 2: Protoplanetary disks
    Lecture 3: Planetesimal formation
    Lecture 4: Formation of terrestrial and giant planets
    Lecture 5: Evolution and stability of planetary systems

    MOVIES FUN STUFF
    Animations from numerical simulations of black hole accretion and planet migration. I maintain a separate web site of landscape photography, mostly from the National Parks and wilderness areas of North America. Of course there's always a list of web links too.
    Phil Armitage (pja@jilau1.colorado.edu)
    JILA, Campus Box 440
    University of Colorado
    Boulder CO80309-0440
    USA

    Tel: 303-492-7836 or FAX: 303-492-5235