James M. Cordes

Specialty Areas

Radio and Radar Astronomy

Research Projects

A Deep Northern Census of Radio Pulsars- Initiating An Arecibo Multibeam Survey, Neutron Stars, Electron Density Turbulence and Interstellar/Intergalactic Seeing., Technology Development for the Square Kilometer Array., Evolution of the Bow Shock in the Guitar Nebula

Biography

James Cordes's research interests include radio astronomy, neutron stars, pulsars, the interstellar medium, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, signal processing techniques, statistical inference, and topics in computer science. He regularly makes observations using radio telescopes in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, the Parkes telescope in Australia, and the Very Long Baseline Array, headquartered in New Mexico. Cordes also makes infrared and optical observations using the Hale Telescope at Palomar and has taken part in joint radio and gamma-ray observations using the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory and X-ray Timing Explorer. He also uses the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Satellite in his multiwavelength work. He is currently planning observations using the upgraded Arecibo Observatory and a new multiple-feed receiver system that involve deep searches for radio pulsars. He is also heavily involved in the Square Kilometer Array project, a next-generation radio telescope.

Selected Publications

• Cordes, J. M., R. W. Romani, and S. C. Lundgren. "The Guitar Nebula: A Bow Shock from a Slow-Spin, High-Velocity Neutron Star." Nature 362, 133 (1993).

• Taylor, J. H., and J. M. Cordes. "Pulsar Distances and the Galactic Distribution of Free Electrons." Ap. J. 411, 674 (1993).

• Lazio, T. J. W., and J. M. Cordes. "Pulsars, Planets, and Genetics." Mercury 24, 23_26 (1995).

• Cordes, J. M., T. J. W. Lazio, and C. Sagan. "Scintillation Induced Intermittency in SETI." Ap. J., submitted (1995).

• McLaughlin, M. A. and Cordes, J. M. "The Gamma-Ray Pulsar Population", Astrophysical Journal, 538, 818, (2000).

• Chatterjee, S. and Cordes, J. M. "Bow Shocks from Neutron Stars: Scaling Laws and Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Guitar Nebula" Astrophysical Journal, 575, 407 (2002).

• Ransom, S. M., Cordes, J. M. and Eikenberry, S. S. "A New Search Technique for Short Orbital-period Binary Pulsars" Astrophysical Journal, 589, 911 (2003).

• Cordes, J. M. et al. "The Brightest Pulses in the Universe: Multifrequency Observations of the Crab Pulsar's Giant Pulses" preprint,astro-ph/0304495 (2003).