Mikhail (Misha) V. Medvedev
- Professor
- APS Fellow - DPP
- Research Interests: Space, Astrobiophysics, Astro/Cosmology
- Physics & Astronomy
Contact Info
1251 Wescoe Hall Dr.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Personal Links
Biography —
2011-present: Professor, University of Kansas
2006-2011: Associate Professor, University of Kansas
2010: Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
2009-2010: Ib Henriksen Visiting Professor, Niels Bohr International Academy, Denmark
2002-2006: Assistant Professor, University of Kansas
2000-2002: Postdoctoral Fellow, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA)
1998-2000: Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, Department of Astronomy
1996-1998: Postgraduate Researcher, University of California, San Diego
1993-1996: Research/Teaching Assistant, University of California, San Diego
Education —
Supreme Laude
Research —
My research interests cover a wide variety of subjects in high-energy astrophysics and space physics, including: Gamma-ray bursts (the strongest and brightest explosions in the Universe), relativistic shock waves, magnetic field generation, radiation physics, observational aspects. Astrobiology: how life on Earth has been (and will be) affected by cosmogenic factors, such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, energetic solar flares, etc. Accretion physics: the dynamics of the gas infall onto strongly gravitating objects, signatures of black holes and neutron stars in the accretion spectra. Colsmology: transport phenomena (e.g. thermal conduction) in galaxy clusters, transport in irregular and chaotic magnetic fields, origin of magnetic fields in the Universe. Solar and stellar wind physics: structure of termination shocks, charge-exchange x-rays from shocks, nonlinear waves in the solar wind.
Selected Publications —
Physics:
- M.V. Medvedev, “Evaporation” of a flavor-mixed particle from a gravitational potential, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 43 (2010) 372002
Gamma-Ray Bursts, shocks and jitter radiation:
- M.V. Medvedev, J.T. Frederiksen, T. Haugboelle, A. Nordlund, Radiation from subLarmor scale magnetic fields, Astrophys. J. 737, 55 (2011)
- M.V. Medvedev, S. Pothapragada, S. Reynolds, Modeling Spectral Variability of Prompt GRB Emission within the Jitter Radiation Paradigm, Astrophys. J. Lett. 702, L91 (2009)
- M.V. Medvedev, The theory of spectral evolution of the GRB prompt emission, Astrophys. J., 637, 869 (2006)
- M.V. Medvedev, Electron Acceleration in Relativistic Gamma-Ray Burst Shocks, Astrophys. J., 651, L9 (2006)
- M.V. Medvedev, M. Fiore, R.A. Fonseca, L.O. Silva, and W. B. Mori, Long-time evolution of magnetic fields in relativistic GRB shocks, Astrophys. J. Lett., 618, L75 (2005)
- M.V. Medvedev, Theory of “Jitter” Radiation from Small-Scale Random Magnetic Fields and Prompt Emission from Gamma-Ray Burst Shocks, Astrophys. J., 540, 704 (2000)
- M.V. Medvedev and A. Loeb, Generation of Magnetic Fields in the Relativistic Shock of Gamma-Ray-Burst Sources, Astrophys. J., 526, 697 (1999).
Galaxy clusters:
- M.V. Medvedev, L.O. Silva, and M. Kamionkowski, Cluster magnetic fields from largescale-structure and galaxy shocks, Astrophys. J. Lett., 642, L1 (2006)
- R. Narayan and M.V. Medvedev, Thermal Conduction in Clusters of Galaxies, Astrophys. J. Lett.,, 562, L129 (2001)
Other astro topics:
- M.V. Medvedev, A.L. Melott, Do extragalactic cosmic rays induce cycles in fossil diversity?, Astrophys. J., 664, 879 (2007)
- M.V. Medvedev, Boundary Layer Self-Similar Solution for the Hot Radiative Accretion onto a rapidly Spinning Neutron Star, Astrophys. J., 613, 506 (2004)
- M.V. Medvedev and R. Narayan, Self-Similar Hot Accretion Flow onto a Neutron Star, Astrophys. J., 554, 1255 (2001)
- M.V. Medvedev and N. Murray, Hot Settling Accretion Flow onto a Spinning Black Hole, Astrophys. J., 581, 431 (2002)
- M.V. Medvedev and G. Rybicki, The Structure of Self-Gravitating Polytropic Systems with n around 5, Astrophys. J.,, 555, 863 (2001)
- M.V. Medvedev and R. Narayan, Axisymmetric Self-Similar Equilibria of SelfGravitating Isothermal Systems, Astrophys. J., 541, 579 (2000)
Other non-astro topics:
- M.V. Medvedev and P.H. Diamond, Self-Organized States in Cellular Automata: Exact Solution, Phys. Rev. E 58, 6824 (1998)
- M.V. Medvedev, P.H. Diamond, M.N. Rosenbluth, and V.I. Shevchenko, Asymptotic Theory of Nonlinear Landau Damping and Particle Trapping in Waves of Finite Amplitude, Phys. Rev. Lett., 81, 5824 (1998)
- M.V. Medvedev, P.H. Diamond, V.I. Shevchenko, and V.L. Galinsky, Dissipative Dynamics of Collisionless Nonlinear Alfven Wave Trains, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 4934 (1997).
Awards & Honors —
2010: The Ambrose Monell Foundation grant (IAS, Princeton)
2009-2010: The Ib Henriksen Foundation support for visiting professors (NBIA, Denmark)
2009-2010: Danish National Bank program (for distinguished visitors) (NBIA, Denmark)
2004-2007: DOE Junior Faculty grant (the career development grant similar to NSF Career grant)
2006: Best Presentation Award from the Royal Society (UK), for the work on particle acceleration in gamma-ray bursts presented at the R. Soc. Meeting on GRBs
1996: Friends of the International Center Fellowship, UC San Diego
1993-1994: General Atomics Takeo Fukuda Fellowship (financial support for 1993-94)
1993: American Physical Society Study Grant - support PPCF-3 summer school
1987-1993: Multiple awards for excellence in education, Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology