Hello! My name is James Guillochon, currently a Principal Data Scientist at Esri. Welcome to my personal webpage!
Below are a collection of my projects, a combination of my research from my academic and post-academic days.
Disclaimer: Any views expressed on this website are my own and do not reflect the views of my current employer.
Star SETI
A browser for modulation candidates drawn from stellar surveys. Each target is ranked by a SETI score, and the list can be filtered by stellar class, survey, and the bit code written in its light curve.
Beam-Driven Light Sails
An optical beam pushing a light sail leaks a flash about half a minute long. The paper works out how large an array has to be to catch one, and finds that Roman, Rubin, or Euclid could see a sail anywhere in the Galaxy.
Tidal Disruption Engine
In a post-starburst galaxy, the debris of one tidal disruption can keep feeding the black hole and set off the next. The engine follows those clusters through orbits, debris streams, and the collisions that let the flares sustain themselves.
Earth's Sky Through Time
Scrub four and a half billion years of sky colour, from a steam-and-CO2 Hadean atmosphere to the one overhead today. Pick an epoch, then step through a day and watch that sky move from dawn to dusk.
The Fastest Unbound Stars in the Universe
Stars bound to a black hole that merges with a larger one can be thrown out at a tenth of the speed of light or more.
From: 2015
ADS
Revisiting hypervelocity stars after Gaia DR2
From: 2018
Observational cosmology with semi-relativistic stars
From: 2016
Turbovelocity Stars: Kicks Resulting from the Tidal Disruption of Solitary Stars
From: 2013
Earth's Sky Through Time
Sky colour from the steam-and-CO2 Hadean to today. Scrub geologic time, then a single day.
From: 2026
Consequences of the Ejection and Disruption of Giant Planets
Giant planets scattered inside about three tidal radii are destroyed or ejected, and the encounter can leave the star tipped over.
From: 2011
ADS
Transforming Gas Giant Planets into Smaller Objects Through Tidal Disruption
From: 2014
On the Survivability and Metamorphism of Tidally Disrupted Giant Planets: The Role of Dense Cores
From: 2013
Optical Flashes from Beam-Driven Light Sails
Leakage from an optical sail beam is a flash of about half a minute. Roman, Rubin, or Euclid could see one anywhere in the Galaxy.
From: 2026
ADS
Star SETI
Modulation candidates from stellar surveys, ranked by a SETI score and filterable by class, survey, and code.
From: 2026
SETI via Leakage from Light Sails
A microwave beam pushing a sail between habitable planets would leak as a Jansky-level radio flash lasting tens of seconds.
From: 2015
ADS
MOSFiT: Modular Open-Source Fitter for Transients
Downloads transient light curves from open catalogs, fits them, and can send the posteriors back.
From: 2018
ADS
A 14-year-old Supernova at 16 Mpc
A bright source in a 2004 image of NGC 1892 is a Type IIP supernova that went unreported for 14 years.
From: 2018
ADS
An Open Catalog for Supernova Data
The Open Supernova Catalog: photometry, spectra, and metadata in a documented format anyone can download.
From: 2017
ADS
Systematic Investigation of the Fallback Accretion-powered Model for Hydrogen-poor Superluminous Supernovae
From: 2018
The Combined Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-infrared Light Curves of the Kilonova Associated with the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817: Unified Data Set, Analytic Models, and Physical Implications
From: 2017
The Magnetar Model for Type I Superluminous Supernovae. I. Bayesian Analysis of the Full Multicolor Light-curve Sample with MOSFiT
From: 2017
Circumstellar Absorption in Double Detonation Type Ia Supernovae
From: 2013
A Self-Sustaining Black Hole Engine Powered by the Tidal Disruptions of Stars
In a post-starburst galaxy the debris of one disruption can keep feeding the black hole, so the flares sustain themselves.
From: 2026
ADS
Black Holes: Crime in Search of a Crime Scene
A look at how a star torn apart by a massive black hole lights up, and what the flare can say about the black hole.
From: 2017
ADS
Simulations of Magnetic Fields in Tidally Disrupted Stars
The first magnetohydrodynamic simulations of these encounters. A surviving star amplifies its field; a destroyed one returns already strongly magnetized.
From: 2017
ADS
Unbound Debris Streams and Remnants
The unbound half of a disrupted star sweeps up gas and leaves a remnant that can look like a supernova remnant, including Sgr A East.
From: 2016
ADS
A Dark Year for Tidal Disruption Events
Spin can keep the debris stream from hitting itself for years, so the flare stays dark and then turns on late.
From: 2015
ADS
Possible Origin of the G2 Cloud
G2 may be one clump in the debris of a giant star that Sgr A* stripped centuries ago.
From: 2014
ADS
PS1-10jh: Disruption of a Main-Sequence Star
The helium lines, and the missing hydrogen, fit a disrupted main-sequence star of about solar composition.
From: 2014
ADS
Feeding Rates of Black Holes by Tidal Disruption
How much mass comes back, and how fast, depends on the plunge and the structure of the star. The fade is often steeper than the usual t−5/3.
From: 2013
ADS
Tidally Disrupted Solar-Type Stars and Shock Breakout
A star squeezed by the tides shocks and can flash in X-rays before any of the debris falls back.
From: 2009
ADS
Stellar Tidal Disruption Events with Abundances and Realistic Structures (STARS): Library of Fallback Rates
From: 2020
Constraining the stellar mass function from the deficiency of tidal disruption flares in the nuclei of massive galaxies
From: 2019
Shock breakouts from tidal disruption events
From: 2019
The Tidal Disruption of Sun-like Stars by Massive Black Holes
From: 2019
Weighing Black Holes Using Tidal Disruption Events
From: 2019
A Comparison of the X-Ray Emission from Tidal Disruption Events with those of Active Galactic Nuclei
From: 2018
The Galactic Distribution of Fragments Formed from Tidally Disrupted Stars
From: 2017
A likely decade-long sustained tidal disruption event
From: 2017
Low-mass White Dwarfs with Hydrogen Envelopes as a Missing Link in the Tidal Disruption Menu
From: 2017
New Physical Insights about Tidal Disruption Events from a Comprehensive Observational Inventory at X-Ray Wavelengths
From: 2017
The γ-ray afterglows of tidal disruption events
From: 2016
Prompt Radiation and Mass Outflows from the Stream-Stream Collisions of Tidal Disruption Events
From: 2016
The X-Ray through Optical Fluxes and Line Strengths of Tidal Disruption Events
From: 2016
Discovery of an Outflow from Radio Observations of the Tidal Disruption Event ASASSN-14li
From: 2016
Relativistic effects on tidal disruption kicks of solitary stars
From: 2015
The Dynamics, Appearance, and Demographics of Relativistic Jets Triggered by Tidal Disruption of Stars in Quiescent Supermassive Black Holes
From: 2012
The Tidal Disruption of Giant Stars and their Contribution to the Flaring Supermassive Black Hole Population
From: 2012
Surface Detonations in Double Degenerate Binary Systems
Helium piled onto a white dwarf by an unstable companion can detonate, and that blast can set off the carbon-oxygen core.
From: 2010
ADS
Optical Thermonuclear Transients from Tidal Compression of White Dwarfs as Tracers of the Low End of the Massive Black Hole Mass Function
From: 2016
Death by Dynamics: Planetoid-Induced Explosions on White Dwarfs
From: 2015
Thermonuclear detonations ensuing white dwarf mergers
From: 2015
Conditions for Successful Helium Detonations in Astrophysical Environments
From: 2013
How the merger of two white dwarfs depends on their mass ratio: orbital stability and detonations at contact
From: 2012
Prelude to A Double Degenerate Merger: The Onset of Mass Transfer and Its Impact on Gravitational Waves and Surface Detonations
From: 2011
Collisions of White Dwarfs as a New Progenitor Channel for Type Ia Supernovae
From: 2009
Canvas Doodle to Code
Draw rectangles, circles, lines, and arcs, and copy out the JavaScript canvas code.
From: 2025
Annual Calendar Generator
Printable year calendars as PDFs, with page size, US holidays, and optional weekend shading.
From: 2026
Math Sniper
Watches the math arXiv for results that look improvable, and can pack a Lean or C/CUDA follow-up.
From: 2026
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