Welcome
My name is John McCann.
Graduate student at UCSB,
researching exoplanets.
Scroll down to learn more!
Born in Chicago, I am currently pursuing a PhD in physics out in California. I did my undergraduate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where I worked on black hole accretion. Currently I am a second year graduate student at University of California, Santa Barbara; however, I am currently located at University of California, Santa Cruz. Presently under the advising of Ruth Murray-Clay, I study atmospheric escape on Hot Jupiters. Flip to the next card for my contact information.
John McCann
| Name | : | John McCann |
| Work Number | : | +1 (312) 715-7603 |
| Email Address | : | mccann@physics.ucsb.edu |
| UCSB Office | : | Broida 2nd Floor, Room 2014 |
| UCSC Office | : | CfAO 1st Floor, Room 102 |
Research
Currently I am working in the field of exoplanets theory and simulations—with my work heavily focusing on simulations. My project is performing simulations of planetary atmospheric winds interacting with their host stars. For this work I use the publically available ATHENA to investigate possible underlying physics. Working in 3D, with these simulations I seek to model the non-linear, short timescale behavior of a magnetized atmospheric wind interacting with a time variable stellar environment. Comparing these models to observations will yield the first detailed description of the structure form a quickly escaping atmosphere. In particular, modeling hot Jupiters will allow comparison to the most easily observed class of exoplanet; however, fast thermal escape is thought to be the dominating process shaping the bulk atmosphere of many planets, especially lower mass planets.
Teaching
Listed are courses I have been a teaching assistant for. Course websites are linked in the names and icons; some websites have been taken down by the instructor on record.
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g
Phys 141: Optics
Spring 2016 UCSB
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c
Phys 2: General
Summer 2015 UCSB
Notes
An incomplete collection of notes I have created since starting graduate school. Their completeness and correctness are not gaurenteed. If you have comments about these notes, please feel free to contact me.
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Isothermal Winds
May 13, 2016
Overview of Bondi accretion and Parker winds. With disucssion of de Laval Nozzles.
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Adiabatic Atmospheres
April 09, 2016
Adiabatic atmosphere in hydrostatic equilbrium. Discussion on scale heights for non-isothermal cases.
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Alfven Waves
Feburary 18, 2016
The traditional derivation of Alfven waves from linearizing the MHD equations.
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Collisionaless Boltzmann Equation
October 05, 2015
Elementary discription and introduction to the concept.
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Hill Equation
September 01, 2015
Hill's equation for a reduced three-body system, and the Shearing box approximation.
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Effective Potential
August 08, 2015
Vector based analysis of tidial forces in a reduced three-body system.
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Wind Driven Shocks
July 07, 2015
Discussion of the various cases in which a wind can shock an ambient medium.
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Presentations
A collection of presentations I have given, so far for UCSB Astro Journal Club and courses.
04/23/16
Kozai-Lidov Mechanism and Black Hole Mergers
A presentation on binary mergers via the Kozai-Lidov mechanism (N-body simulation). [paper]
11/13/2015
Calibration of Gravitational Wave Dectector
A presentation on gravitational wave dectector calibration, with background on gravitational waves. [paper]
01/30/2015
Bright but Slow Type II Supernovae
A presentation on an interesting class of type II supernovae observed by OGLE. [paper]
06/10/2016
Settling in White Dwarfs
A presentation on a MESA project exploring gravitational settling of accreted material onto a white dwarf. Modeled after WD 1145+017 observations. [paper]
02/26/2015
Classification of Emission-line Spectra
A presentation on the classical paper on the classifcation parameters for emmision-line spectra of extragalactic objects. [paper]
Miscellaneous Physics
Under construction.
Curriculum Vitae
“Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.”
—John von Neumann
“In this life that we call home, the years go fast and the days go so slow.”
—Isaac Brock
“We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.”
—Niels Bohr
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ”
—Alvin Toffler
“A lot of movies aren't intended for everybody.”
—Tim Heidecker
“When you're not concerned with succeeding, you can work with complete freedom.”
—Larry David