Research at MoCA

Research at MoCA is focussed in several groups as well as a range of individual research interests. The main research groups are listed below. Information about particular research topics can be found by following the links.

We are currently one of only 6 institutions in Australia to rate a maximum 5/5 for Astronomical and Space Sciences in the ERA national research assessment.

SINS: Stellar interiors and nucleosynthesis		MonGRels: Monash General Relativists
	The SINs group studies the structure and interior evolution of stars as well as the nuclear elements they produce.		Monash has a large group of researchers working in many areas of both Classical and Numerical General Relativity.
Clique du Soleil: Solar Physics		SPH: Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics
	The Solar Physics group is mainly concerned with understanding magnetic activity in the sun using helioseismology.		SPH is a numerical technique for solving the equations of fluid dynamics, developed strongly here at Monash and being applied widely in astrophysics and geophysical fluid dynamics.
Gravitational dynamics		High Energy Astrophysics
	The dynamics group studies small-N systems, in particular extrasolar planetary systems including the effects of moons, tides, spin-orbit coupling and relativity, and the dynamics of small-N systems in dense stellar systems. Three-body stability is central to much of our work.		High Energy Astrophysics involves understanding some of the most violent objects in the universe, such as supernovae and the neutron stars they leave behind.
Galaxy Evolution
	The Galaxy Evolution Group studies how galaxies change and evolve over cosmic time.