Duncan Galloway

Dr Duncan Galloway's primary area of research interest is the nature and properties of neutron star binaries. A neutron star is the extreme product of a supernova explosion; the surface density, temperature, and magnetic field strength are all many orders of magnitude in excess of anything achievable on Earth. Accreting binaries, in which gas from a relatively normal stellar companion falls under gravity onto a neutron star, offer a unique window on some rich physics via satellite-based X-ray observations.

Duncan studied at the University of Tasmania, in Hobart. Following his undergraduate degree he worked for five years as an oceanographer before returning to study in the field of astrophysics. He spent five years in postdoctoral positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA, where he established his research career with X-ray studies of accreting neutron stars, and returned to Australia to take up fellowships first at the University of Melbourne and then Monash University.

Duncan's research involves observational studies of accretion-powered millisecond pulsars and thermonuclear (type-I) bursts, using NASA and ESA satellite X-ray observatories, including the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, INTEGRAL, XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array(NuSTAR). The goals of these studies include improved understanding of the physical processes, as well as constraining the uncertain neutron star equation of state.

He is the Monash PI of the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observatory (GOTO) project, with the goal of building a network of optical telescopes to respond to gravitational wave detections by the Advanced Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO) Accreting binaries are also candidate gravitational wave sources, which may be detectable by aLIGO. He also carries out optical and X-ray observations to improve the measured system parameters, which can lead to more sensitive searches for gravitational waves.