Courses

This semester:
PHYS 105: Mathematical Methods in Physics
ASTR 4B: Stars and Galaxies
Physics colloquium coordinator

Previous semesters:
PHYS 106: Introduction to Modern Physics
ASTR 132: Stars, Galaxies and Cosmology

Research Interests

My main research interest is the structure of disc galaxies. What makes those grand spiral arms we see in the galaxies in our night sky? Why are some barred and not all? What is the lifetime of such features? Can they be formed in isolation, or is a companion needed to induce some features? And how do these various arm and bar features impact on the gas in the galaxy?

Of special interest to me is the shape of our own galaxy; the Milky Way. Rather embarrassingly, we know less about the shape of the Milky Way than other galaxies because we are stuck inside. This makes building a map of the Milky Way, and thus understanding its structure, a lot more complicated.

To shed some light on these questions I perform numerical simulations using a variety of different numerical codes, simulating the gas, stars and dark matter within. I then compare what I see in my simulations to real observed galaixes to better understand the physics that makes them tick.

Social media: Twitter (views my own), Youtube (research videos)

Publications

Below are articles in peer reviewed journals (either published or in review status). Full bibliographic details can be found in my ADS library here: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/public-libraries/QJSnG6ZkSei8Mg-aq1r79g 

Kawata, D., Kawahara, H., Gouda, N., Secrest, N., Kano, R., Kataza, H., Isobe, N., Ohsawa, R., Usui, F., Yamada, Y., Graham, A. W., Pettitt, A. R., et al., submitted to PASJ.

Iles, E. J., Pettitt, A. R., Okamoto, T., Kawata, D., submitted to MNRAS.

Duran-Camacho, E., Durate-Cabral, A., Pettitt, A. R., Tress, R. G., Clark, P. C., Klessen, R. S., Bogue, K. R. J., Smith, R. J., Sormani, M. C., submitted to MNRAS.

Ge, Y., Wang, K., Durate-Cabral, A., Pettitt, A. R., Dobbs, C. L., Sanchez-Monge, A., Neralwar, K. R., Urqhart, J. S., et al., A&A, 675, A119

Ali, A., Dobbs, C. L., Bending, T. J. R., Buckner, A. S. M., Pettitt, A. R., 2023, MNRAS, 524, 555.

Sakre, N., Habe, A., Pettitt, A. R., Okamoto, T., Enokiya, R., Fukui, Y., Hosokawa, T., 2023, MNRAS, 522, 4972.

Dobbs, C. L., Bending, T. J. R., Pettitt, A. R., Buckner, A. S. M., Bate, M. R., 2022, MNRAS, 517, 675.

Kawana, Y., Saito, T., Okumura, S., Kawabe, R., Espada, D., Iono, D., Kaneko, H., Lee, M, Michiyama, T., Motohara, K., Nakanishi, K., Pettitt, A. R., Randriamanakoto, Z., Ueda, J., Yamashita, T., 2022, ApJ, 929, 100.

Iles, E. J. L., Pettitt, A. R., Okamoto, T., 2022, MNRAS, 510, 3899.

Colombo, D., Durate-Cabral, A., Pettitt, A. R., Urquhart, J. S., Wyrowski F., Csengeri, T., Schuller, F., Menten, K. M., et al., 2022, A&A, 658, 54.

Dobbs, C. L., Bending, T., Pettitt, A. R., Bate, M. R., 2022, MNRAS, 509, 954.

Sakre, N., Habe, A., Pettitt, A. R., Okamoto,T., 2021, PASJ, 73, S385.

Urquhart, J. S., Figura, C., Cross, J. R., Wells, M. R. A., T. J. T. Moore, Eden, D. J., Ragan, S. E., Pettitt, A. R., Duarte-Cabral, A., Colombo, D., Schuller, F., et al., 2021, MNRAS, 500, 3.

Schuller, F., Urquhart, J. S., Csengeri, T., Colombo, D., Duarte-Cabral, A., Mattern, M., Ginsburg, A., Pettitt, A. R., Wyrowski, F., Anderson, L., et al., 2021, MNRAS, 500, 3.

Durate-Cabral, A., Colombo, D., Urquhart, J. S., et al., 2021, MNRAS, 500, 3.

Quillen, A. C., Pettitt, A. R., Chakrabarti, S., Zhang, Y., Gagne, J., Minchev, I., 2020, MNRAS, 499, 4.

Benincasa, S. M., Wadsley, J. W., Couchman, H. M. P., Pettitt, A. R., Keller, B. W., Woods, R. M., Grond, J. J., 2020, MNRAS, 499, 2.

Pettitt, A. R., Dobbs, C. L., Baba, J., D. Colombo, A. Duarte-Cabral, F. Egusa, A. Habe, 2020, MNRAS, 498, 1.

Hunt, J., Johnston, K. V., Pettitt, A. R., Bovy, J., Cunningham, E. C., Kawata, D., Hogg, D., 2020 MNRAS, 497, 1.

Pettitt, A. R., Ragan, S. E., Smith, M. C., 2020, MNRAS, 491, 2.

Benincasa, S. M., Wadsley, J. W., Couchman, H. M. P., Pettitt, A. R., Tasker, E. J., 2019, MNRAS, 486, 4.

Dobbs, C. L., Rosolowski, E., Pettitt, A. R., Braine, J., Corbelli, E., Sun, J., 2019, MNRAS, 485, 4.

Salak, D., Noma, Y., Sorai, K., Miyamoto, Y., Kuno, N., Pettitt, A. R., Kaneko, H., Tanaka, T., et al., 2019, PASJ, psz004.

Espada, E., Martin, S., Verley, S., Pettitt, A. R., Matshitaka, S., Argudo-Fernandez, M., Randriamanakoto, Z., Hsieh, P., Saito, T., et al., 2018, ApJ, 866, 2.

Pettitt, A. R., Egusa, F., Dobbs, C. L., 2018, Tasker, E. J., Habe, A., Fujimoto, Y., 2018, MNRAS, 480, 3556.

Price, D. J., Wurster, J., Nixon, C., Tricco, T. S., Toupin, S., Pettitt, A. R., Chan, C., et al., 2018, PASA, 35, 31.

Dobbs, C. L., Pettitt, A. R., Corbelli, E., Pringle, J. E., 2018, MNRAS, 478, 3793.

Nguyen, N. K., Pettitt, A. R., Tasker, E. J., Okamoto, T., 2018, MNRAS, 475, 27.

Pettitt, A. R., Wadsley, J. W., 2018, MNRAS, 474, 5645.

Pettitt, A. R., Tasker, E. J., Wadsley, J. W., Keller, B. W., Benincasa, S. M., 2017, MNRAS, 468, 4189.

Schuller, F., et al., 2017, A&A, 601, A124.

Dobbs, C. L., Price, D. J., Pettitt, A. R., Bate, M. R., Tricco, T. S., 2016, MNRAS, 461, 4482.

Few, C. G., Dobbs, C. L., Pettitt, A. R. & Konstandin, L., 2016, MNRAS, 460, 4382.

Pettitt, A. R., Tasker, E. J. & Wadsley, J. W., 2016, MNRAS, 458, 3990.

Pettitt, A. R., Dobbs, C. L., Acreman, D. A. & Bate, M. R., 2015, MNRAS, 449, 3911.

Tremblin P., Anderson L. D., Didelon P., Raga A. C., Minier V., Ntormousi E., Pettitt A., Pinto C., Samal M., Schneider N. & Zavagno A., 2014, A&A, 568, 4.

Pettitt, A. R., Dobbs, C. L., Acreman, D. A. & Price, D. J., 2014, MNRAS, 444, 919.

Wilson, P. A., Colon, K. D., Sing, D. K., Ballester, G. E., Desert, J. M., Ehrenreich, D., Ford, E. B., Fortney, J. J., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Lopez-Morales, M., Morley, C. V., Pettitt, A. R., Pont, F., Vidal-Madjar, A., 2014, MNRAS, 438, 2395.