Astrophysics and Cosmology

Image Credit: Michael Taylor

A fundamental problem in astronomy is the 3rd dimension. At large distances, the sky appears as a projected image where depth information is locked up in the sum of pixel intensity integrated along the line of sight. I have spent the last few years working on various attempts to improve our understanding of the true 3D structure of celestial objects like HII regions & galaxies and planetary nebulae through the use of 3D photoionisation models and quantum-mechanical calculations of the populations of ions present. More recently I have started working on source-propagation models of cosmic rays with Dr Mercedes Molla using nonextensive statistical mechanics based on the work of Constantinos Tsallis.

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

1. Taylor M and Molla M (2010) Towards a unified source-propagation model of cosmic rays. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific [9^th International Conference of the Hellenic Astronomical Society] 424:98-104. [Poster] [arXiv] [post-print] [journal article] [BibTeX]
2. Taylor M and Vilchez JM (2009) Tutorial: Exact solutions for the populations of the n-level ion (Review Article). Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 121:1257–1266. doi:0.1086/648121. [arXiv] [post-print] [journal article] [BibTeX] (1 citation)
3. Taylor M and Diaz AI (2007) On the deduction of galaxy abundances with evolutionary neural networks. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific [From Stars to Galaxies: Building the Pieces to Build Up the Universe] 374:104-110. [arXiv] [post-print] [journal article] [BibTeX] (2 citations)
4. Taylor M (2005) An AI approach to quantitative modelling in Astrophysics. Congreso Español de Informática [Symposium on Fuzzy Logic and Soft Computing] 1:69-81. [post-print] [BibTeX]
   

Conference Talks:

1. Taylor M (2007) Unravelling the nonlinear physics of high metallicity galaxies and HII regions with A.I. neural networks. ESTALLIDOS Star Formation Conference V, IAA, Granada, Spain. [PPT Talk]
2. Taylor M (2006) Using artificial intelligence to deduce galactic abundances. STARGAL 2006, Venice, Italy. [PPT Talk]
3. Taylor M (2006) Abell 39 – the benchmark nebula for 3D photoionisation modelling. ESTALLIDOS Star Formation Conference IV, CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain. [PPT Talk]