Rebecca Diesing

Theoretical Astrophysicist

About me

Hello! I’m an astrophysicist who builds models of particle acceleration. I use these models to connect theory with observations of extreme phenomena such as supernova remnants and winds launched by active galactic nuclei. I’m currently a postdoc at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at Columbia University in New York City. Before that, I earned my PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Chicago.

My research interests include:

Cosmic rays

Acceleration and propagation

Astrophysical shocks

Supernova remnants, novae, black hole winds, and more

Multi-messenger emission

Photons from radio to gamma-rays, charged particles, and neutrinos

astroparticle instrumentation

Balloon-borne and space-based detectors

CRAFT

At the core of my PhD work was my development of CRAFT (Cosmic Ray Analytical Fast Tool), a model of particle acceleration that runs in seconds on a laptop, yet self-consistently incorporates results from state-of-the-art kinetic simulations. This movie shows the CRAFT-predicted multi-wavelength emission from a supernova remnant expanding into a dense stellar wind followed by a uniform interstellar medium.

Selected publications

NONTHERMAL SIGNATURES OF RADIATIVE SUPERNOVA REMNANTS

Rebecca Diesing, Minghao Guo, Chang-Goo Kim, James Stone, and Damiano Caprioli

THE MAXIMUM ENERGY OF SHOCK-ACCELERATED COSMIC RAYS

Rebecca Diesing

Featured in AAS Nova

Evidence for Multiple Shocks from the Gamma-Ray Emission of RS Ophiuchi

Rebecca Diesing, Brian D. Metzger, Elias Aydi, Laura Chomiuk, Indrek Vurm, Siddhartha Gupta, and Damiano Caprioli

Steep Cosmic Ray Spectra With Revised Diffusive Shock Acceleration

Rebecca Diesing and Damiano Caprioli

rrdiesing@ias.edu