1. Galactic Astrophysics Group
    1. Welcome
  2. Code
    1. galpy
    2. astroNN
    3. wendy
    4. apogee
    5. gaia_tools
    6. mwdust
    7. Bovy's GitHub
  3. Computing
    1. Compute servers
    2. Data
    3. This site

Galactic Astrophysics group

What do we do?

In the Galactic Astrophysics group at the University of Toronto, we investigate the physical processes that drive the formation and evolution of galaxies and we research the nature of dark matter using astrophysical observations. In particular, we focus on understanding the structure and dynamics of the Milky Way, our home galaxy. We approach these questions through the analysis of large data sets from surveys such as SDSS and Gaia and theoretical modeling. Some of the specific questions that we are interested in are:

We are seeking detailed answers to all of these questions, going beyond the broad-brush picture that we currently have. We do this by pushing the observational data sets to their limits through use of sensitive, flexible, and robust analysis techniques.

Much of the research in our group is focused on developing new inference methods for the interpretation of astrophysical data, which has specific demands due to ubiquitous sources of noise, selection effects, and incomplete physical models for most of the systems (stars, galaxies) that we are dealing with. Some of the methodological questions that we are developing solutions for are:

We approach all of these questions by making use of our significant (if incomplete) physical understanding of the processes governing the structure of stars, galaxies, and the Universe.

Who are we?

The Galactic Astrophysics group is led by Jo Bovy, Canada Research Chair in Galactic Astrophysics. Current members of the team are:

PhD and postdoc group alumni include:

Undegraduate and MA alumni include:

Contact info

See the UofT astro directory.