[phas-alumni] [phas-dept] PHAS Colloquium - Thursday, October 1, 2026

[Sandra Nichol]

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Fall 2026 Colloquium
Thursday, October 1, 2026 4pm to 5pm
127 McFarland Science Building
(Refreshments served at 3:50pm)

The Powerful Tides and Nonlinear Waves in Stars and Planets

Dr. Nevin Weinberg University of Texas at Arlington
Abstract

Tides significantly impact the structure, evolution, and fate of many types of close binary systems, including stellar binaries and short-period exoplanets. In many of these systems, the tide's amplitude is so large that it cannot be treated as a small, linear perturbation. I will show that nonlinear effects can greatly enhance the rate of tidal dissipation and thus the rate of binary evolution. As examples, I will describe how nonlinear tides influence the formation and orbital evolution of hot Jupiter's and the gravitational-wave signal of compact object binaries. In the second part of my talk, I will discuss the nonlinearity of waves excited in isolated stars such as red giants and pulsating variables. Here our study is motivated by the rich oscillation spectra observed by space missions such as Kepler and TESS, which revolutionized the field of asteroseismology and yielded a wealth of information about the internal and global properties of tens of thousands of stars.

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Dr. Nevin Weinberg
Dr. Weinberg received his BS in physics and math from the University of Chicago in 2000 and his PhD in astrophysics from Caltech in 2005. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara and at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2011, he joined the MIT physics department as an assistant professor and in 2016 became an associate professor. In 2020, Dr. Weinberg joined the UTA physics department and became a full professor in 2024.

His research group studies a variety of astrophysical phenomena related to stellar fluid dynamics and binary evolution, including tides in coalescing neutron star binaries, stellar binaries and exoplanetary systems, stellar seismology, and thermonuclear burning on the surfaces of accreting neutron stars (X-ray bursts).

https://sites.google.com/view/pha-tamuc-colloquium/phas-tamuc-colloquium




Sandra K. Nichol

Administrative Associate III

Physics & Astronomy

P: 903.886.5488



[East Texas A&M logo]<https://www.etamu.edu/>



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