Niall McElroy - Student Profile
Current research project
Atomic Structure and Collisional Data for Heavy Elements Z≥ 50 Involved in Neutron Star Mergers
The modelling of collisional and photoionisation data of Heavy Elements is a gap in current knowledge with wide-ranging ramifications for the modelling of astrophysical phenomena such as supernova and kilonova as well as in Nuclear Fusion and Stellar Opacity calculations.
My Research includes using numerous parallel CPU and GPU codes for large-scale linear algebra calculations for both simulations in the relativistic and semi-relativistic schema.
Biography
I started my PhD at the Astrophysics Research Centre in October 2022 after completing my Master's degree in Physics at Queens University Belfast. My Master’s Project involved characterising an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet which included an experimental component and theoretical modelling of Thompson, Raman, and Rayleigh scattering, which led me to now to a project where I use numerous methods including R-Matrix Theory to simulate the scattering of electrons of heavy elements.
Research interest
- Atomic Structure
- Stellar Opacities
- High-Performance Computing
- R-Matrix Theory
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