David R. Branch
George Lynn Cross Research Professor
B.S. 1964 Rensselaer
Ph.D. 1969 Maryland

I am working on the interpretation of the spectroscopic, photometric, and statistical properties of supernovae. One goal is to learn how to infer the physical conditions of the ejected matter - the temperature, density, velocity, chemical composition, and mass. By comparing this information with the predictions of theoretical explosion models, we try to find out which kinds of stars produce the various observed supernova types, and how they explode. A related goal is to use supernovae as distance indicators, to measure the expansion rate (Hubble constant), geometry, and expansion rate of the universe.

D. Branch, D. J. Jeffery, M. Blaylock, & K. Hatano, ``Supernova Resonance-Scattering Profiles in the Presence of External Illumination", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 112, 217 (2000)

K. Hatano, D. Branch, A. Fisher, J. Millard, & E. Baron, ``Ion Signatures in Supernova Spectra", Astrophysical Journal Supplement 121, 233 (1999)

D. Branch,``Type Ia Supernovae and the Hubble Constant", Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 36, 17 (1998).

K. Hatano, D. Branch, A. Fisher, & S. Starrfield, ``New Insight into the Spatial Distribution of Novae in M31", Astrophysical Journal 487, L45 (1997).