utexas.edu College of Natural Sciences
Freshman Research Initiative
Search the site

Mike Montgomery

  • Research Scientist
  • Deputy Director of the Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties
  • Assistant Professor of Practice
  • Freshman Research Initiative
  • Astronomy
Profile image of Mike Montgomery
mikemon@astro.as.utexas.edu
PMA
16.232
Visit Website Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Before UT, Dr. Montgomery completed postdoctoral positions at the Institute of Astronomy in Vienna, Austria, and the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK. Before that, he completed his Ph.D. in 1998 at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Dr. Don Winget on the evolution and pulsation of crystallizing white dwarf stars. Since 2009, he has run the FRI course in Astronomy, which gets students started in the research careers in their freshman year of school. His recent research has focused more on laboratory astrophysics questions, and he is currently the Deputy Director of the Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties. 

Research

Research Areas

  • Cosmology or Space

Fields of Interest

  • Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
  • Stellar and Galactic Astrophysics
  • Plasma/Fusion Physics
  • Astronomy-Astrophysics Theory

Centers and Institutes

  • Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties
  • McDonald Observatory

Education

  • B.S. Physics, University of Texas at Austin (1988)
  • M.A. Physics, Department of Physics, Princeton University (1992)
  • Ph.D. Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin (1998)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute of Astronomy, University of Vienna, Austria (1998-2000)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (2000-2004)

Publications

  • “Overview of oxygen opacity experiments at the National Ignition Facility and investigation of potential systematic errors,” Mayes, D. C., Hobbs, B. A., Heeter, R. F., Perry, T. S., Johns, H. M., Opachich, Y. P., Hohenberger, M., Bradley, P. A., Dutra, E. C., Fontes, C. J., Gallardo-Diaz, E., Montgomery, M. H., Robey, H. F., Wallace, M. S., & Winget, D. E., 2025, High Energy Density Physics, 55, 101177

  • “Hunting for Polluted White Dwarfs and Other Treasures with Gaia XP Spectra and Unsupervised Machine Learning,” Kao, M. L., Hawkins, K., Rogers, L. K., Bonsor, A., Dunlap, B. H., Sanders, J. L., Montgomery, M. H., & Winget, D. E., 2024, ApJ, 970(2), 181

  • “Development of improved higher-order correction for the NIF opacity spectrometer,” Hobbs, B. A., Mayes, D. C., Heeter, R. F., Bradley, P. A., Dutra, E. C., Fontes, C. J., Gallardo-Diaz, E., Hohenberger, M., Johns, H. M., Opachich, Y. P., Robey, H. F., Stoupin, S., Wallace, M. S., Webster, L. G., Montgomery, M. H., Perry, T. S., & Winget, D. E., 2024, Review of Scientific Instruments, 95(8), 083535

  • “Fluid Mixing during Phase Separation in Crystallizing White Dwarfs,” Montgomery, M. H. & Dunlap, B. H., 2024, ApJ, 961(2), 197

  • “Asteroseismological analysis of the polluted ZZ Ceti star G 29 - 38 with TESS,” Uzundag, M., De Gerónimo, F. C., Córsico, A. H., Silvotti, R., Bradley, P. A., Montgomery, M. H., Catelan, M., Toloza, O., Bell, K. J., Kepler, S. O., Althaus, L. G., Kleinman, S. J., Kilic, M., Mullally, S. E., Gänsicke, B. T., B ˛akowska, K., Barber, S., & Nitta, A., 2023, MNRAS, 526(2), 2846-2862

  • “Density measurements for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) opacity platform,” Opachich, Y. P., Heeter, R. F., Johns, H. M., Dodd, E. S., Kline, J. L., Krasheninnikova, N. S., Mayes, D. C., Montgomery, M. H., Winget, D. E., Urbatsch, T. J., & Perry, T. S., 2022, Review of Scientific Instruments, 93(11), 113515

  • “Measuring He I Stark Line Shapes in the Laboratory to Examine Differences in Photometric and Spectroscopic DB White Dwarf Masses,” Schaeuble, M. A., Nagayama, T., Bailey, J. E., Gigosos, M. A., Florido, R., Blouin, S., Gomez, T. A., Dunlap, B., Montgomery, M. H., & Winget, D. E., 2022, ApJ, 940(2), 181

  • “Quadratic Zeeman effect in hydrogen at 2-3 MG magnetic fields,” Ivanov, V. V., Mancini, R. C., Huerta, N. A., Swanson, K. J., Winget, D. E., Montgomery, M. H., Golovkin, I. E., Hariharan, H. K., & Berbel, Z. S., 2022, Phys. Rev. E, 106(4), 045206

  • “Kepler and TESS Observations of PG 1159-035,” Oliveira da Rosa, G., Kepler, S. O., Córsico, A. H., Costa, J. E. S., Hermes, J. J., Kawaler, S. D., Bell, K. J., Montgomery, M. H., Provencal, J. L., Winget, D. E., Handler, G., Dunlap, B., Clemens, J. C., & Uzundag, M., 2022, ApJ, 936(2), 187

  • “The Pulsating Helium-atmosphere White Dwarfs. I. New DBVs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” Vanderbosch, Z. P., Hermes, J. J., Winget, D. E., Montgomery, M. H., Bell, K. J., Nitta, A., & Kepler, S. O., 2022, ApJ, 927(2), 158

  • “Simulation of Stark-broadened Hydrogen Balmer-line Shapes for DA White Dwarf Synthetic Spectra,” Cho, P. B., Gomez, T. A., Montgomery, M. H., Dunlap, B. H., Axen, M. F., Hobbs, B., Hubeny, I., & Winget, D. E., 2022, ApJ, 927(1), 70

  • “Hydrogen Line Shape Uncertainties in White Dwarf Model Atmospheres,” Montgomery, M. H., Dunlap, B. H., Cho, P. B., & Gomez, T. A., 2022, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 9

  • “Pulsating hydrogen-deficient white dwarfs and pre-white dwarfs observed with TESS. III. Asteroseismology of the DBV star GD 358,” Córsico, A. H., Uzundag, M., Kepler, S. O., Silvotti, R., Althaus, L. G., Koester,  D., Baran, A. S., Bell, K. J., Bischoff-Kim, A., Hermes, J. J., Kawaler, S. D., Provencal, J. L., Winget, D. E., Montgomery, M. H., Bradley, P. A., Kleinman, S. J., & Nitta, A., 2022, A&A, 659, A30

  • “All-Order Full-Coulomb Quantum Spectral Line-Shape Calculations,” Gomez, T. A., Nagayama, T., Cho, P. B., Zammit, M. C., Fontes, C. J., Kilcrease, D. P., Bray, I., Hubeny, I., Dunlap, B. H., Montgomery, M. H., & Winget, D. E., 2021, Phys. Rev. Lett., 127, 235001

  • “Identifying Periodic Variable Stars and Eclipsing Binary Systems with Long-term Las Cumbres Observatory Photometric Monitoring of ZTF J0139+5245,” Sanghi, A., Vanderbosch, Z. P., & Montgomery, M. H., 2021, AJ, 162(4), 133

  • “I Spy Transits and Pulsations: Empirical Variability in White Dwarfs Using Gaia and the Zwicky Transient Facility,” Guidry, J. A., Vanderbosch, Z. P., Hermes, J. J., Barlow, B. N., Lopez, I. D., Boudreaux, T. M., Corcoran, K. A., Bell, K. J., Montgomery, M. H., Heintz, T. M., Castanheira, B. G., Reding, J. S., Dunlap, B. H., Winget, D. E., Winget, K. I., & Kuehne, J. W., 2021, ApJ, 912(2), 125

  • “On the Impact of 22Ne on the Pulsation Periods of Carbon-Oxygen White Dwarfs with Helium-dominated Atmospheres,” Chidester, M. T., Timmes, F. X., Schwab, J., Townsend, R. H. D., Farag, E., Thoul, A., Fields, C. E., Bauer, E. B., & Montgomery, M. H., 2021, ApJ, 910(1), 24

  • “The Pulsating White Dwarf G117-B15A: Still the Most Stable Optical Clock Known,” Kepler, S. O., Winget, D. E., Vanderbosch, Z. P., Castanheira, B. G., Hermes, J. J., Bell, K. J., Mullally, F., Romero, A. D., Montgomery, M. H., DeGennaro, S., Winget, K. I., Chandler, D., Jeffery, E. J., Fritzen, J. K., Williams, K. A., Chote, P., & Zola, S., 2021, ApJ, 906(1), 7

  • “A White Dwarf with Transiting Circumstellar Material Far outside the Roche Limit,” Vanderbosch, Z., Hermes, J. J., Dennihy, E., Dunlap, B. H., Izquierdo, P., Tremblay, P. E., Cho, P. B., Gänsicke, B. T., Toloza, O., Bell, K. J., Montgomery, M. H., & Winget, D. E., 2020, ApJ, 897(2), 171

  • “Limits on Mode Coherence in Pulsating DA White Dwarfs Due to a Nonstatic Convection Zone,” Montgomery, M. H., Hermes, J. J., Winget, D. E., Dunlap, B. H., & Bell, K. J., 2020, ApJ, 890(1), 11

  • “Illuminating White Dwarf Spectra through Laboratory Experiments at Cosmic Conditions,” Winget, D. E., Montgomery, M. H., Dunlap, B. H., Cho, P. B., Schaeuble, M. A., & Gomez, T. A., 2020, High Energy Density Physics, 37, 100853

  • “TESS first look at evolved compact pulsators. Asteroseismology of the pulsating helium-atmosphere white dwarf TIC 257459955,” Bell, K. J., Córsico, A. H., Bischoff-Kim, A., Althaus, L. G., Bradley, P. A., Calcaferro, L. M., Montgomery, M. H., Uzundag, M., Baran, A. S., Bognár, Z., Charpinet, S., Ghasemi, H., & Hermes, J. J., 2019, A&A, 632, A42

  • “Hβ and Hγ Absorption-line Profile Inconsistencies in Laboratory Experiments Performed at White Dwarf Photosphere Conditions,” Schaeuble, M. A., Nagayama, T., Bailey, J. E., Gomez, T. A., Montgomery, M. H., & Winget, D. E., 2019, ApJ, 885(1), 86

  • “GD358: Three Decades of Observations for the In-depth Asteroseismology of a DBV Star,” Bischoff-Kim, A., Provencal, J. L., Bradley, P. A., Montgomery, M. H., Shipman, H. L., Harrold, S. T., Howard, B., Strickland, W., Chandler, D., Campbell, D., Arredondo, A., Linn, R., Russell, D. P., Doyle, D., Brickhouse, A., Peters, D., Kim, S.-L., Jiang, X. J., Mao, Y.-N., Kusakin, A. V., Sergeev, A. V., Andreev, M., Velichko, S., Janulis, R., Pakstiene, E., Aliçavu¸s, F., Horoz, N., Zola, S., Ogłoza, W., Koziel-Wierzbowska, D., Kundera, T., Jableka, D., Debski, B., Baran, A., Meingast, S., Nagel, T., Loebling, L., Heinitz, C., Hoyer, D., Bognár, Z., Castanheira, B. G., & Erdem, A., 2019, ApJ, 871, 13