Donald E Winget

Biography

Donald E Winget is a Director, Professor in the Department of Astronomy at College of Natural Sciences The University of Texas at Austin Research Interests Theory and observation: cosmochronology; evolution of the Milky Way; late stages of stellar evolution; stellar pulsations; white dwarf stars as dark matter detectors; the Whole Earth Telescope. Group Areas White Dwarfs, Asteroseismology, Whole Earth Telescope, Stellar Pulsation Diverse avenues of research, ranging from the physics of matter at high temperatures and densities to galactic structure and cosmochronology, intersect in the study of white dwarf stars. I exploit the intrinsic simplicity of these high gravity objects by applying the powerful theoretical machinery of asteroseismology to determine many of the fundamental structural and evolutionary parameters of white dwarf stars; rotation rates, magnetic field strengths, total mass, compositional stratification of the envelope, core composition, and more. I use this information to study the behavior of matter under extreme conditions, to explore the history and population of our galaxy, and constrain the nature of weakly interacting particles as dark matter candidates. We are searching planetary systems around pulsating white dwarf stars. This search will yield planetary systems dynamically similar to our own solar system."

Research Interest

Space