Dr. Ian Hawke
- Position
- Lecturer
- Institution
- Mathematics (FSHS)
- Webpage
- http://www.southampton.ac.uk/maths/about/staff/ih3.page
- Contact
- Complete this online contact form to contact Ian.
Ian is a lecturer in the Relativity and Gravitation group within Mathematical Sciences. He joined Southampton after a PhD at DAMTP, Cambridge, and post-doctoral work at the Albert-Einstein Institute in Potsdam, Germany.
Research Interests
His research interests focus on numerical simulations in full General Relativity, particularly nonlinear calculations predicting the gravitational wave signals that might be observed by detectors such as LIGO, and that typically result from the collapse and merger of massive objects such as neutron stars.
The physics required to study neutron stars includes the flow of fluids at extreme velocity, the behaviour of the elastic solids at very high pressures that result in neutron star crusts, their interaction with complex magnetic fields, and the effect of multiple particle species. Combined with the dynamical spacetime background, neutron stars and their evolution provide an excellent astrophysical laboratory probing realms of physics beyond what is possible on Earth.
Ian is a main author and developer of the Whisky code for relativistic hydrodynamics within the Cactus framework. This performs large-scale finite difference and finite volume simulations with mesh refinement provided through the Carpet driver on which he also works. Recent research has concentrated on the numerical modelling of more complex physical effects, including the nonlinear dynamics of multiple interacting relativistic fluid species, and the propagation of shock waves in relativistic solids.
Publications
A list of my recent publications is available here.
Ian's team members
 Kyriaki DionysopoulouResearch Fellow, Mathematics (FSHS) |
 Tim LemonPostgraduate Research Student, Mathematics (FSHS) |
 Stephanie EricksonPostgraduate Research Student, Mathematics (FSHS) |
 Susanne Ufermann FangohrAdministrative Staff, Civil Engineering & the Environment (FEE) |
|
John Muddle Alumnus, Mathematics (FSHS) |
 Weiwei WangAlumnus, Ningbo University |
Joint projects with...
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Stephanie Erickson Postgraduate Research Student, Mathematics (FSHS) |
 Hans FangohrProfessor, Engineering Sciences (FEE) |
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Carsten Gundlach Professor, Mathematics (FSHS) |
 Peter HorakReader, Optoelectronics Research Centre |
 Ian JonesLecturer, Mathematics (FSHS) |
Projects
Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Computational Modelling
With Hans Fangohr, Peter Horak (Investigators), Susanne Ufermann Fangohr, Thorsten Wittemeier, Kieran Selvon, Alvaro Perez-Diaz, David Lusher, Ashley Setter, Emanuele Zappia, Hossam Ragheb, Ryan Pepper, Stephen Gow, Jan Kamenik, Paul Chambers, Robert Entwistle, Rory Brown, Joshua Greenhalgh, James Harrison, Jonathon Waters, Ioannis Begleris, Craig Rafter
High-resolution shock-capturing (HRSC) methods for elastic matter in general relativity
With Carsten Gundlach, Stephanie Erickson (Investigators)
Gallery
An iron core collapses prior to explosion in a supernova. The rapid rotation leads to the oblate density isocontours, and the violent behaviour near bounce leads to the emitted gravitational waves. [Ott, Dimmelmeier, Hawke, Schnetter, Kahler]
The relative velocity between two interacting relativistic multifluids. The coupling between the fluids leads to a two-stream instability, with important implications for neutron star oscillations. [Hawke, Andersson, Comer, Samuelsson]