The research will concentrate on magnetic cataclysmic variables, which are binary star systems in which a magnetic white dwarf accretes matter from a companion star. Topics include the cyclotron emission from hot magnetized plasmas, radio emission from them, and the process of accretion onto magnetic stellar polar caps. Among the many violent cosmic phenomena, some occur because two stars orbit about each other and gases begin to flow from one star to the other until an explosion occurs on the receiving star. This award supports theory and modelling of mass transfer onto a highly magnetic white dwarf, an Earth-sized star. Observations of such objects have improved to the point where one may expect new physical understanding of exceedingly hot and highly magnetized plasmas, because these astronomical plasmas occur on a scale vastly larger than the Earth's laboratories or even its magnetic surroundings.
