Julia Ahlvind

Greetings!

I’m a PhD student in astrophysics, working under the supervision of Professor Josefin Larsson in the Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Medical Imaging group at KTH.
 

My research focuses on some of the most dramatic explosions in the universe—core-collapse supernovae. These violent events mark the deaths of massive stars, releasing in a single blast several hundred times the total energy radiated by the Sun since its birth. But in death, there is also life! At the heart of these spectacular explosions, compact objects are born. These compact objects are for example: neutron stars, pulsars, or  black holes.

Using my X-ray vision (with a little help from space telescopes), I probe the inner parts of supernovae to study the compact objects formed within. I’m particularly interested in the properties and the conditions under which the compact objects are formed.
 

Beyond research, I’ve spent the past few years teaching and working as a teaching assistant in the following courses: