Research Project: Characterizing the Gamma-ray Emission from Pulsar Wind Nebulae with the Fermi-LAT

Santi is a PhD student at Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) under the supervision of Dr. Gaug and Dr. Font in the high energy astrophysics group. Specially, Santi is focused on the detection of Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs) in the Very High Energy (VHE) regime inside the MAGIC collaboration to try to understand the origin of these QPOs. Such QPOs appear in stellar-mass Black Hole Binary (BHB) systems but also in Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). At CfA and under the supervision of Dr. James Steiner, will study the Dynamic Accretion onto Stellar-Mass Black Holes, measuring the spin of black hole systems, modeling QPOs in black hole systems and relating QPO changes to spectral evolution of the BH system, modeling the geometrical and spectral characteristics during a black hole outburst, and using the premier Magellan telescopes to measure orbital characteristics and determine the masses of quiescent black hole systems. Outside of research, he enjoys reading science fiction and training for an Ironman, watching Japanese animations, and working as a field hockey coach. You can also find him playing field hockey or working extra hours.

Supervisor: Dr. James Steiner