Basel Universität
Departement für Physik und Astronomie
Departement für Physik und Astronomie

PD Dr. Ahmad A. Hujeirat

Department of Physics
University of Basel
Klingelbergstrasse 82
CH-4056 Basel


office 1.21 oder 4.9
tel.: +41 (0)61 267 3750
fax: +41 (0)61 267 1349
e-mail:


administrative assistant
Francois Erkadoo
tel.: +41 (0)61 267 3750
fax: +41 (0)61 267 1349
e-mail:


Center for Astronomy Heidelberg
University of Heidelberg
LSW-Königstuhl
69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Nord Institut/LSW/Heidelberg
tel. +49 (0)6221 541763
fax. +49(0)6221 541702
e-mail: AHujeirat@lsw.uni-heidelberg.de



Short Biography

  1. Master of sciences (1988): "Boundary layers around white dwarfs"
    Supervised by Prof. Nadav Liron/Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Profs. Oded Regev and Mario Livio/Faculty of Phjysics, Technion, Haifa
  2. PhD (1994): "Time-evolution of accretion disks: A numerical hydrodynamical method"
    Supervised by Prof. Rannacher, Faculty of Applied Mathematics, University of Heidelberg
  3. Habilitations (2006): "Formation and acceleration of jets around black holes"
    Mentor, Prof. Thielemann, Department Physics, University of Basel

Short and long term visits

University of Würzburg, Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy/Heidelberg, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, MIT, University of London, Paris Observatory, University of Strassburg, Universiyy of Lyon, Technion/Haifa, Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Hebrew University in Jerusalem



Research Summary


The focus of my research is to use mathematical and computer tools to study diverse unresolved phenomena in high energy astrophysics. The topics are:

  1. Mathematical and theoretical astrophysics
  2. Implicit numerical methods in astrophysical fluid dynamics
  3. Numerical general relativity
  4. Development of the ultimate solver: GRIMHD

Astrophysical applications:

  1. Collapse of clouds and generation of stars
  2. Accretion disks around compact stars and in AGNs
  3. Formation and acceleration of jets around stellar and supermassive black holes
  4. X-ray bursts on neutron stars and gamma-ray bursts

Students are welcome to pursue theoretical and/or numerical research in one of the above-mentioned topics towards achieving their Bachelor, Master, Diploma and PhD degrees.


Selected Publications

Mathematical physics: Matched asymptotic expansion

  1. "A model for electromagnetic extraction of rotational energy and formation of accretion-powered jets in radio galaxies", 2004, A&A, 416 423, Hujeirat, A.

Implicit numerical methods in astrophysical fluid dynamics:

  1. "A problem-orientable numerical algorithm for modeling multi-dimensional radiative MHD flows in astrophysics—the hierarchical solution scenario", 2005, CoPhC, 168, 1, Hujeirat, A.
  2. "A method for relaxing the Courant-Friedrich-Levy condition in time-explicit schemes", 2005, A&A, 430, 893, Hujeirat, A.

Numerical general relativity:

  1. "An implicit numerical algorithm for solving the general relativistic hydrodynamical equations around accreting compact objects", 2008, NewA, 13, 436, Hujeirat, A., Camenzind, M., Keil, B. W.

Accretion disks, jets, X-ray and GRBs:

  1. "Angular momentum transport during X-ray bursts in neutron stars: a numerical general relativistic hydrodynamical study", 2009, A&A, 496, 609, Hujeirat, A., Thielemann, F.-K.

For further details, see the full list of publication here.