I am a PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick. My supervisor is Prof. Andrew Levan.

Research

In the past decade wide field sky surveys have unearthed a new subclass of supernova events, so called Superluminous Supernovae (SLSNe). These transient events are approximately 100 times brighter than standard core collapse supernovae events, and their peak luminosities can span tens of days. While SLSNe are thought to arise from deaths of the most massive stars, the mechanisms through which their extreme luminosities and duration are achieved are still the subject of much debate. Possible mechanisms include:

• Pair instability supernovae - the collapse of a massive carbon-oxygen stellar core due to the annihilation of electron positron pairs produced at high temperatures
• An interaction between the explosion ejecta and a dense circumstellar envelope of material surrounding the star
• An injection of energy from an internal engine, such as the energy released from the spin down of a magnetar
  

My work involves studying the host galaxies of these events and using their properties to infer further information about the progenitors of SLSNe.

First Author Publications

"A Hubble Space Telescope Survey of the Host Galaxies of Superluminous Supernovae" - C.R. Angus, A.J. Levan, D.A. Perley, N.R. Tanvir, J.D. Lyman, E.R. Stanway, A.S. Fruchter, 2016, MNRAS, 458, 84

Other Publications

"Hubble Space Telescope observations of the host galaxies and environments of calcium-rich supernovae" - J. D. Lyman, A. J. Levan, P. A. James, C. R. Angus, R. P. Church, M. B. Davies, N. R. Tanvir, 2016, MNRAS, 458, 1768

"The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. I. Far-ultraviolet spectroscopic census and the origin of HeII 1640 in young star clusters" - Paul A. Crowther, S.M. Caballero-Nieves, K.A. Bostroem, J. Maiz Apellaniz, F.R.N. Schneider, N.R. Walborn, C.R. Angus, I. Brott, A. Bonanos, A. de Koter, S.E. de Mink, C.J. Evans, G. Grafener, A. Herrero, I.D. Howarth, N. Langer, D.J. Lennon, J. Puls, H. Sana, J.S. Vink, 2016, MNRAS, 458, 624

Conference Talks

"Hosts of the Most Luminous Supernovae" - Supernova in Near and Far, Royal Astronomical Society Specialist Meeting, London, March 2014

"Hosts of Superluminous Supernovae - A HST View" - National Astronomy Meeting, Portsmouth, June 2014

"Hunting for the faintest hosts of the brightest explosions: Superluminous Supernovae hosts with HST" - Focus Meeting 10, IAU General Assembly XXIX, Honolulu, August 2015

"A HST Perspective of Superluminous Supernova Host Galaxies" - Mysterious Connection Between Superluminous Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts, STScI, Baltimore, May 2016

"The Host Galaxies of Superluminous Supernovae, as seen by HST" - Supernovae: The Outliers, MIAPP topical workshop, Garching, September 2016