Thomas Kupfer , Ph.D. Joint & Adjuct Faculty - Department Physics & Astronomy

My research interest revolves around late stellar binary evolution, strong gravitational wave sources, supernova Ia progenitors and time-domain surveys. My research goal is to observationally constrain the population of the most compact binaries using optical time-domain data and compare their properties and distributions to theoretical predictions. My techniques focus on the use of 'Big Data' and survey science to discover and characterize rare events and populations of different stellar types in large databases. I am member of the LISA consortium, the BlackGEM and ZTF science collaborations and I have been PI for more than 50 nights of observing time at world-class observatories used for my studies.

My enthusiasm in astronomy started already very early in my study. Already as a 2nd year undergraduate student I joined the group of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Heber at the Remeis observatory in Bamberg. As ERASMUS student I spent 3 months at Armagh observatory, Northern Ireland to work on an abundance analysis of extreme helium stars which I continued as Master thesis. In May 2011 I started my doctorate at the Department of Astrophysics at the Radboud University Nijmegen on ultracompact AMCVn type binaries supervised by Prof. Dr. Paul Groot which I finished successfully in July 2015. Before joining Texas Tech University, I did Postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology (2015 - 2018) and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical at UC Santa Barbara (2018 - 2020). 

Selected Publications

• Kupfer, T., Bauer, E., Burdge, K., et al. 2020, ApJL, 898, 25: A New Class of Roche Lobe-filling Hot Subdwarf Binaries
• Kupfer, T., Bauer, E., Burdge, K., et al. 2019, ApJL, 878,2: A New Class of Large-amplitude Radial-mode Hot Subdwarf PulsatorsKupfer, T., Korol, V., Shah, S. et al. 2018, MNRAS, 480, 302: LISA verification binaries with updated distances from Gaia Data Release 2
• Kupfer, T., Przybilla, N., Heber, U. et al. 2017, MNRAS, 471, 877: Quantitative spectroscopy of extreme helium stars - Model atmospheres and a non-LTE abundance analysis of BD+102179
• Kupfer, T., Geier, S., Heber, U. et al. 2015, A&A, 576, 44: Hot subdwarf binaries from the MUCHFUSS project - Analysis of 12 new systems and a study of the short period binary population
• Kupfer, T., Groot, P. J., Levitan, D. et al. 2013, MNRAS, 432, 2048: Orbital periods and accretion disc structure of four AM CVn systems
• Burdge, K., Coughlin, M. W., Fuller, J., Kupfer, T. et al. 2019, Nature, 571, 528: General relativistic orbital decay in a seven-minute-orbital-period eclipsing binary system
• Ramsay, G., Green, M. J., Marsh, T., Kupfer, T. et al. 2018, A&A, 620, 141: The physical properties of AM CVn stars: new insights from Gaia DR2
• Geier, S., Fürst, F., Ziegerer, E., Kupfer, T. et al. 2014, Science, 347, 1126: The fastest unbound star in our Galaxy - Ejected by a thermonuclear supernova