Joe Patterson
electronic mail:		jop@astro.columbia.edu
office:		1316 Pupin Physics Laboratories
telephone:		+1 (212) 854 - 3276
facsimile:		+1 (212) 854 - 8121

Research Interests

Most stars are found in binaries, yet the theory of stellar evolution is almost exclusively about single stars. It is high time to remedy that oversight! Towards that end, one of my major research goals is to understand the structure and evolution of cataclysmic variables, especially the oldest ones (the WZ Sge and AM CVn stars) where both components have evolved to degenerate states. I have also been working for 20 years to understand the structure of DQ Her stars, often called intermediate polars in those parts of the world where confusion and error still reign (particularly east of the mid-Atlantic ridge). Look, there's one at the right. Click on the 1994 review paper, and wallow in this subject a bit. Until recently my observational activity was ~60% from the National Observatories, maybe 30% from various X-ray telescopes, 10% from other satellites. But in ~1991 we formed the Center for Backyard (neé Basement) Astrophysics, a network of primarily amateur astronomers spanning the globe and collaborating on observation of variable stars. This has provided a powerful tool to study periodic processes in these stars, free from aliasing (because of the global distribution) and free from problems with weather (it's always clear somewhere). It also proved timely, because it was just about then that NOAO decided to kick us out (they don't like 15th mag stars anymore). Click on the CBA, and read all about us. I'm particularly interested in precession phenomena in accretion disks, which are manifested as superhumps.

rev. 3 September 2009	jop@astro.columbia.edu