Schmidt, Gary AST 97-30792 Dr. Schmidt will carry out a program of research to investigate the effects of magnetic fields on accretion processes in binary systems and on compact stars. He will explore accretion processes in extremely high magnetic fields by using both observational and theoretical approaches, such as magnetohydrodynamics calculations of regions near the inner Lagrange point to study the timescales for mass transfer episodes, Doppler tomography to map the path of the accretion stream, and detailed models of the optical spectra to evaluate magnetic field strength and morphology. He will also search for much weaker fields on a sample of single white dwarfs to better understand the incidence of magnetism on white dwarfs, and by extension also on main-sequence stars of solar-mass range, as well as provide measurements of field strength for reference in asteroseismological studies. Finally, he will perform high speed photometry and spectrophotometry of cataclysmic variables for reverberation mapping of the accretion disks and surrounding gas in compact neutron star and black-hole X-ray binaries. These projects take advantage of polarimetric equipment on the Steward Observatory 2.3-meter and the converted 6.5-meter Multiple Mirror Telescope. ***
