WELCOME! to the web site of Phil Armitage at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and a Fellow at JILA. My research focuses on the formation and early evolution of extrasolar planetary systems, and the astrophysics of black holes. I am on sabbatical during the 2009-2010 academic year, but my normal teaching includes a range of primarily upper division undergraduate and graduate classes.

PUBLICATIONS RECENT PAPERS
A complete list of my publications via ADS.

planet formation book

My graduate level textbook on planet formation is available through Cambridge University Press. The textbook is a greatly expanded version of my Lecture notes on the formation and early evolution of planetary systems, which I plan to continue updating as a freely available reference.

Planet-planet scattering in planetesimal disks II: Predictions for outer extrasolar planetary systems, S.N. Raymond, P.J. Armitage & N. Gorelick, ApJ, in press
The role of disc self-gravity in the formation of protostars and protostellar discs, W.K.M. Rice, J.H. Mayo & P.J. Armitage, MNRAS, in press
Black hole mergers: the first light, E.M. Rossi, G. Lodato, P.J.Armitage, J.E. Pringle & A.R. King, MNRAS, 401, 2021 (2010)
Giant planet migration, disk evolution, and the origin of transitional disks, R.D. Alexander & P.J. Armitage, ApJ, 704, 989 (2009)
Planet-planet scattering in planetesimal disks, S.N. Raymond, P.J. Armitage & N. Gorelick, ApJ, 699, L88 (2009)
Time-dependent models of the structure and evolution of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs, W.K.M. Rice & P.J. Armitage, MNRAS, 396, 228 (2009)
Planet-planet scattering leads to tightly packed planetary systems, S.N. Raymond, R. Barnes, D. Veras, P.J. Armitage, N. Gorelick & R. Greenberg, ApJ, 696, L98 (2009)
Massive black hole binary mergers within sub-pc scale gas discs, J. Cuadra, P.J. Armitage, R.D. Alexander & M.C. Begelman, MNRAS, 393, 1423 (2009)
STUDENTS & POSTDOCS RESEARCH INTERESTS
I am currently working with University of Colorado graduate students Jared Workman and Anna Hughes, and with postdoctoral fellow Kris Beckwith.

Past members of my group include former student Dimitri Veras (now a postdoc at the University of Florida), and postdoc Ken Rice (now on the faculty at the University of Edinburgh). Other collaborators include former Colorado postdocs Richard Alexander (Leiden), Sean Raymond (Bordeaux), Daniel Proga (UNLV), Jorge Cuadra (MPA) and Elena Rossi (Racah Institute).

My research in theoretical and computational astrophysics focuses on two main areas. I am broadly interested in planet formation and protoplanetary disk evolution, including studies of angular momentum transport in protoplanetary disks, the formation of giant and terrestrial planets, and the early evolution of extrasolar planetary systems. I also work more generally in the field of accretion disk theory, where the goals are to elucidate the basic physics of accretion and to make predictions for observable phenomena around young stars, compact objects, and black holes.
MOVIES EXTRASOLAR PLANETS
Animations from numerical simulations of black hole accretion, planet migration and electromagnetic counterparts to black hole binary mergers. Plots of the orbital parameters of currently known extrasolar planets.
Planet Formation and Migration - a popular article I curate for Scholarpedia.
TEACHING FUN STUFF
ASTR 1120: General Astronomy (Spring 2005)
ASTR 3300: Extraterrestrial Life (Spring 2008)
ASTR 3730: Astrophysics 1 (Fall 2007)
ASTR 3830: Astrophysics 2 (Spring 2007)
ASTR 5110: Internal Processes 1 (Fall 2005)
ASTR 5120: Radiative and Dynamical Processes (Spring 2009)
ASTR 5700: Stellar Structure and Evolution (Fall 2002)
ASTR 5820: Solar System Dynamics and Origins (Fall 2008)
ASTR 6000: Disks around Stars (Fall 2002 graduate seminar)
ASTR 6000: Gamma-ray bursts (Fall 2004 graduate seminar)
ASTR 6000: Black Hole Formation (Spring 2007 graduate seminar)
ASTR 6000: Galactic Center (Spring 2008 graduate seminar)
Apart from the above, my interests include hiking, running, triathlon and photography. I maintain a separate web site of landscape photography, mostly from the National Parks and wilderness areas of North America. Finally, there's the usual list of web links.
Last word from Fred Brooks' The Mythical Man-Month

"The programmer builds from pure thought-stuff: concepts and very flexible representations thereof. Because the medium is tractable, we expect few difficulties in implementation; hence our pervasive optimism. Because our ideas are faulty, we have bugs; hence our optimism is unjustified."

Phil Armitage (pja@jilau1.colorado.edu)
JILA, Campus Box 440
University of Colorado
Boulder CO80309-0440
USA

Tel: 303-492-7836 or FAX: 303-492-5235