Jeremiah Paul Ostriker

2011 Bruce Medalist

Date of Birth: April 13, 1937

“Jerry” Ostriker, a native of New York City, earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and chemistry at Harvard University and his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Chicago, where he was a student of S. Chandrasekhar. After a post-doctoral year at the University of Cambridge he joined the faculty at Princeton University in 1965. There he served as chairman of the deparment of astrophysical sciences (1979-1995) and later as provost (1995-2001). For the next three years he was Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge, after which he returned to Princeton as Director of the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering. In 2012 he moved to Columbia University. Working with many different colleagues over the years, he has made significant contributions to a number of areas of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology. He has contributed to our knowledge of pulsars and black holes, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays, and the formation and evolution of galaxies and quasars. He was one of the first to suggest that galaxies are immersed in large halos of dark matter, and he has investigated many cosmological topics, including the distribution of galaxies, baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy, and the values of cosmological parameters as determined using data from WMAP and SDSS. He and his colleagues proposed that about one-third of the baryonic matter in the universe is in a Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM).

Personal Web Page

At Princeton University

Other awards

American Astronomical Society, Helen B. Warner Prize, 1972; Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, 1980.
Astronomische Gesellschaft, Karl Schwarzschild Medal, 1999. (citation)
Peter Gruber Foundation, Cosmology Prize, 2015.
National Academy of Sciences, James Craig Watson Medal, 2012.
National Science Foundation, National Medal of Science, 2000.
Royal Astronomical Society, Gold Medal, 2004.

Biographical materials

Kiel, Lauren D., Harvard Crimson, “Jeremiah P. Ostriker: Astrophysicist, Princeton professor remembers adventurous college years,” 1 June 2009.
National Academy of Sciences Interview
Ostriker, Jeremiah P., “A Fortunate Half-Century,” Ann. Revs. Astron. Astrophys. 54, 1-17 (2016).

Academic genealogy

AstroGen

Portraits

AIP Center for History of Physics (several)
Institute for Advanced Study (with John Bahcall and Lyman Spitzer, Jr., ca. 1979)

Named after him

Minor Planet #12146 Ostriker

Bibliography

Other References: Historical

Search ADS for works about Ostriker

Other References: Scientific

There is a complete list to 2007 on Prof. Ostriker’s website.

Ostriker, J.P. & J.E. Davey, “Optical Heating System for High Vacuum Annealing Studies,” Review of Scientific Instruments 31, 570-71 (1960).

Ostriker, J., “The Equilibrium of Polytropic and Isothermal Cylinders,” Ap.J. 140, 1056-66 (1964).

Lynden-Bell, D. & J.P. Ostriker, “On the Stability of Differentially Rotating Bodies,” MNRAS 136, 293-310 (1967).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & James W-K. Mark, “Rapidly Rotating Stars. I. The Self-consistent-field Method,” Ap.J. 151, 1075-88 (1968).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Peter Bodenheimer, “Rapidly Rotating Stars. II. Massive White Dwarfs,” Ap.J. 151, 1089-98 (1968).

Gunn, James E. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Acceleration of High-Energy Cosmic Rays by Pulsars,” Phys. Rev. Let. 22, 728-31 (1969).

Ostriker, J.P. & J.E. Gunn, “On the Nature of Pulsars. I. Theory,” Ap.J. 157, 1395-1417 (1969).

Gunn, James E. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Magnetic Dipole Radiation from Pulsars,” Nature 221, 454-56 (1969).

Gott, J. Richard, III, Gunn, James E., & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Runaway Stars and the Pulsars Near the Crab Nebula,” Ap.J. 160, L91-L95 (1970).

Ostriker, J.P., M.J. Rees, & J. Silk, “Some Observable Consequences of Accretion by Defunct Pulsars,” Astrophysical Letters 6, 179 (1970).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & James E. Gunn, “Do Pulsars Make Supernovae?” Ap.J. 164, L95-L104 (1971).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P., “Recent Developments in the Theory of Degenerate Dwarfs,” Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 9, 353-66 (1971).

Gunn, James E. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “On the Motion and Radiation of Charged Particles in Strong Electromagnetic Waves. I. Motion in Plane and Spherical Waves,” Ap.J. 165, 523-41 (1971).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P., Lyman Spitzer, Jr., & Roger A. Chevalier, “On the Evolution of Globular Clusters,” Ap.J. 176, L51-L56 (1972).

Davidson, Kris & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Neutron-Star Accretion in a Stellar Wind: Model for a Pulsed X-Ray Source,” Ap.J. 179, 585-98 (1973).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Peter Bodenheimer, “On the Oscillations and Stability of Rapidly Rotating Stellar Models. III. Zero-Viscosity Polytropic Sequences,” Ap.J. 180, 171-80 (1973).

Ostriker, J.P. & P.J.E. Peebles, “A Numerical Study of the Stability of Flattened Galaxies: or, can Cold Galaxies Survive?” Ap.J. 186, 467-80 (1973).

Ostriker, J.P., P.J.E. Peebles, & A. Yahil, “The Size and Mass of Galaxies, and the Mass of the Universe,” Ap.J. 193, L1-L4 (1974).

Tremaine, Scott D., J.P. Ostriker, & Lyman Spitzer, Jr., “The Formation of the Nuclei of Galaxies. I. M31,” Ap.J. 196, 407-11 (1975).

Bahcall, John N. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Massive Black Holes in Globular Clusters?” Nature 256, 23-24 (1975).

Ostriker, J.P. & Scott D. Tremaine, “Another Evolutionary Correction to the Luminosity of Giant Galaxies,” Ap.J. 202, L113-L117 (1975).

Ostriker, J.P. & Trinh X. Thuan, “Galactic Evolution. II. Disk Galaxies with Massive Halos,” Ap.J. 202, 353-64 (1975).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P., Richard McCray, Robert Weaver & A. Yahil, “A New Luminosity Limit for Spherical Accretion onto Compact X-ray Sources,” Ap.J. 208, L61-L65 (1976).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Mark A. Hausman, “Cannibalism among the Galaxies: Dynamically Produced Evolution of Cluster Luminosity Functions,” Ap.J. 217, L125-L129 (1977).

McKee, Christopher F. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “A Theory of the Interstellar Medium: Three Components Regulated by Supernova Explosions in an Inhomogeneous Substrate,” Ap.J. 218, 148-69 (1977).

Rees, M.J. & J.P. Ostriker, “Cooling, Dynamics and Fragmentation of Massive Gas clouds: Clues to the Masses and Radii of Galaxies and Clusters,” MNRAS 179, 541-59 (1977).

Blandford, R.D. & J.P. Ostriker, “Particle Acceleration by Astrophysical Shocks, ” Ap.J. 221, L29-L32 (1978).

Taam, Ronald E., Peter Bodenheimer, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Double core evolution. I. A 16 M_⊙ star with a 1 M_⊙ Neutron-star Companion,” Ap.J. 222, 269-80 (1978).

Hausman, Mark A. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Galactic Cannibalism. III. The Morphological Evolution of Galaxies and Clusters,” Ap.J. 224, 320-36 (1978).

Blandford, Roger D. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Supernova Shock Acceleration of Cosmic Rays in the Galaxy,” Ap.J. 237, 793-808 (1980).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Lennox L. Cowie, “Galaxy Formation in an Intergalactic Medium Dominated by Explosions,” Ap.J. 243, L127-L131 (1981).

Cowie, Lennox L., Christopher F. McKee, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Supernova Remnant Revolution in an Inhomogeneous Medium. I. Numerical Models,” Ap.J. 247, 908-24 (1981).

Caldwell, John A.R. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “The Mass Distribution within Our Galaxy: A Three Component Model,” Ap.J. 251, 61-87 (1981).

Vietri, Mario & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “The Statistics of Gravitational Lenses: Appaarent Changes in the Luminosity Function of Distant Sources Due to Passage of Light through a Single Galaxy,” Ap.J. 267, 488-510 (1983).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Satoru Ikeuchi, “Physical Properties of the Intergalactic Medium and the Lyman-alpha Absorbing Clouds,” Ap.J. 268, L63-L68 (1983).

Ostriker, J.P. & J. Heisler, “Are Cosmologically Distant Objects Obscured by Dust? A Test Using Quasars,” Ap.J. 278, 1-10 (1984).

Turner, Edwin L., Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & J. Richard Gott III, “The Statistics of Gravitational Lenses: The Distributions of Image Angular Separations and Lens Redshifts, ” Ap.J. 284, 1-22 (1984).

Lacey, Cedric G. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Massive Black Holes in Galactic Halos?” Ap.J. 299, 633-52 (1985).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Mario Vietri, “Are some BL Lac Objects Artefacts of Gravitational Lensing?” Nature 318, 446-48 (1985).

Ikeuchi, Satoru & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium: What Happened during the Epoch z = 3–10?” Ap.J. 301, 522-43 (1986).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Ethan T. Vishniac, “Generation of Microwave Background Fluctuations from Nonlinear Perturbations at the Era of Galaxy Formation,” Ap.J. 306, L51-L54 (1986).

Lee, Hyung Mok & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Cross sections for Tidal Capture Binary Formation and Stellar Merger,” Ap.J. 310, 176-88 (1986).

Ostriker, J. P., C. Thompson, & E. Witten, “Cosmological Effects of Superconducting Strings,” Phys. Let. B 180, 231-39 (1986).

Bajtlik, Stanislaw, Robert C. Duncan, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Quasar Ionization of Lyman-alpha Clouds: The Proximity Effect, a Probe of the Ultraviolet Background at High Redshift,” Ap.J. 327, 570-83 (1988).

Aguilar, Luis, Piet Hut, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “On the Evolution of Globular Cluster Systems. I. Present Characteristics and Rate of Destruction in our Galaxy,” Ap.J. 335, 720-47 (1988).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Christopher F. McKee, “Astrophysical Blastwaves,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 60,1-68 (1988).

Miralda-Escudé, Jordi & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “What Produces the Ionizing Background at Large Redshift?” Ap.J. 350, 1-22 (1990).

Narayan, Ramesh & J.P. Ostriker, “Pulsar Populations and Their Evolution,” Ap.J. 352, 222-46 (1990).

Hernquist, Lars & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “A Self-consistent Field Method for Galactic Dynamics,” Ap.J. 386, 375-97 (1992).

Tóth, G. & J.P. Ostriker, “Galactic Disks, Infall, and the Global Value of Omega,” Ap.J. 389, 5-26 (1992).

Cen, Renyue, Nickolay Y. Gnedin, Lev A. Kofman, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “A Tilted Cold Dark Matter Cosmological Scenario,” Ap.J. 399, L11-L14 (1992).

Cen, Renyue & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Galaxy Formation and Physical Bias,” Ap.J. 399, L113-L116 (1992).

Ryu, Dongsu, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Hyesung Kang, & Renyue Cen, “A Cosmological Hydrodynamic Code Based on the Total Variation Diminishing Scheme,” Ap.J. 414, 1-19 (1993).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P., “Astronomical Tests of the Cold Dark Matter Scenario,” Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 31, 689-716 (1993).

Cen, Renyue, Jordi Miralda-Escudé, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Michael Rauch, “Gravitational Collapse of Small-scale Structure as the Origin of the Lyman-alpha Forest,” Ap.J. 437, L9-L12 (1994).

Ostriker, J.P. & Paul J. Steinhardt, “The Observational Case for a Low-density Universe with a Non-zero Cosmological Constant,” Nature 377, 600-02 (1995).

Miralda-Escudé, Jordi, Renyue Cen, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Michael Rauch, “The Lyα Forest from Gravitational Collapse in the Cold Dark Matter + Λ Model,” Ap.J. 471, 582-616 (1996).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Nickolay Y. Gnedin, “Reheating of the Universe and Population III,” Ap.J. 472, L63-L67 (1996).

Gnedin, Oleg Y. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Destruction of the Galactic Globular Cluster System,” Ap.J. 474, 223-55 (1997).

Kulsrud, Russell M., Renyue Cen, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Dongsu Ryu, “The Protogalactic Origin for Cosmic Magnetic Fields,” Ap.J. 480, 481-91 (1997).

Gnedin, Nickolay Y. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Reionization of the Universe and the Early Production of Metals,” Ap.J. 486, 581-98 (1997).

Ciotti, Luca & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Cooling Flows and Quasars: Different Aspects of the Same Phenomenon? I. Concepts,” Ap.J. 487, L105-L108 (1997).

Rauch, Michael, et al, “The Opacity of the Lyα Forest and Implications for Ω_b and the Ionizing Background,” Ap.J. 489, 7-20 (1997).

Bahcall, John N. & Jeremiah P Ostriker, eds., Unsolved Problems in Astrophysics (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1997).

Bahcall, Neta A., Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Saul Perlmutter, & Paul J. Steinhardt, “The Cosmic Triangle: Revealing the State of the Universe,” Science 284, 1481-88 (1999).

Cen, Renyue & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Where Are the Baryons?” Ap.J. 514, 1-6 (1999).

Cen, Renyue & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Cosmic Chemical Evolution,” Ap.J. 519, L109-L113 (1999).

Blanton, Michael, Renyue Cen, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Michael A. Strauss, “The Physical Origin of Scale-dependent Bias in Cosmological Simulations,” Ap.J. 522, 590-603 (1999).

Frenk, C.S., et al, “The Santa Barbara Cluster Comparison Project: A Comparison of Cosmological Hydrodynamics Solutions,” Ap.J. 525, 554-82 (1999).

Fan, Xiaohu, et al, “High-Redshift Quasars Found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data,” Astronomical Journal 118, 1-13 (1999).

Wang, Limin, R.R. Caldwell, J.P. Ostriker, & Paul J. Steinhardt, “Cosmic Concordance and Quintessence,” Ap.J. 530, 17-35 (1999).

York, Donald G., et al, “The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary,” Astronomical Journal 120, 1579-87 (2000).

Miniati, Francesco, Dongsu Ryu, Hyesung Kang, T.W. Jones, Renyue Cen, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Properties of Cosmic Shock Waves in Large-Scale Structure Formation,” Ap.J. 542, 608-21 (2000).

McDonald, Patrick, Jordi Miralda-Escudé, Michael Rauch, Wallace L.W. Sargent, Tom A. Barlow, Renyue Cen, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “The Observed Probability Distribution Function, Power Spectrum, and Correlation Function of the Tramsmitted Flux in the Lyα Forest,” Ap.J. 543, 1-23 (2000).

Ciotti, Luca & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Cooling Flows and Quasars. II. Detailed Models of Feedback-modulated Accretion Flows,” Ap.J. 551, 131-52 (2001).

Davé, Romeel, et al, “Baryons in the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium,” Ap.J. 552, 473-83 (2001).

Bode, Paul, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Neil Turok, “Halo Formation in Warm Dark Matter Models,” Ap.J. 556, 93-107 (2001).

Stoughton, Chris, et al, “Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Early Data Release,” Astronomical Journal 123, 485-548 (2002).

Abazajian, Kevork, et al, “The First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” Astronomical Journal 126, 2081-86 (2003).

Bahcall, Neta A., et al, “The Cluster Mass Function from Early Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data: Cosmological Implications,” Ap.J. 585, 182-90 (2003).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Paul Steinhardt, “New Light on Dark Matter,” Science 300, 1909-13 (2003).

Tegmark, Max, et al, “Cosmological Parameters from SDSS and WMAP,” Phys. Rev. D 69, 103501 (2004).

Abazajian, Kevork, et al, “The Second Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” Astronomical Journal 128, 502-12 (2004).

Tegmark, Max, et al, “The Three-Dimensional Power Spectrum of Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” Ap.J. 606, 702-40 (2004).

Vale, A. & J.P. Ostriker, “Linking Halo Mass to Galaxy Luminosity,” MNRAS 353,189-200 (2004).

Seljak, Uroš, et al, “Cosmological Parameter Analysis Including SDSS Lyα Forest and Galaxy Bias: Constraints on the Primordial Spectrum of Fluctuations, Neutrino Mass, and Dark Energy,” Phys. Rev. D 71, 103515 (2005).

Cen, Renyue & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Where Are the Baryons? II. Feedback Effects,” Ap.J. 650, 560-72 (2006).

Tegmark, Max, et al, “Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies,” Phys. Rev. D 74, 123507 (2006).

Hennawi, Joseph F., Neal Dalal, Paul Bode, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Characterizing the Cluster Lens Population,” Ap.J. 654, 714-30 (2007).

Naab, Thorsten, Peter H. Johansson, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & George Efstathiou, “Formation of Early-Type Galaxies from Cosmological Initial Conditions,” Ap.J. 658, 710-20 (2007).

Shaw, Laurie D., Jochen Weller, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Paul Bode, “The Bound Mass of Substructures in Dark Matter Halos,” Ap.J. 659, 1082-95 (2007).

Bode, Paul, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Jochen Weller, & Laurie Shaw, “Accurate Realizations of the Ionized Gas in Galaxy Clusters: Calibrating Feedback,” Ap.J. 663, 139-49 (2007).

Ciotti, Luca & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Radiative Feedback from Massive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies: AGN Flaring and Central Starburst Fueled by Recycled Gas,” Ap.J. 665, 1038-56 (2007).

Adelman-McCarthy, Jennifer K., et al, “The Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” Ap.J. Supp. 172, 634-44 (2007).

Gott, J. Richard III, et al, “Genus Topology of Structure in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Model Testing,” Ap.J. 675, 16-28 (2008).

Proga, Daniel, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Ryuichi Kurosawa, “Dynamics of Rotating Accretion Flows Irradiated by a Quasar,” Ap.J. 676, 101-12 (2008).

Khochfar, Sadegh & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Adding Environmental Gas Physics to the Semianalytic Method for Galaxy Formation: Gravitational Heating,” Ap.J. 680, 54-69 (2008).

Naab, Thorsten, Peter H. Johansson, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Minor Mergers and the Size Evolution of Elliptical Galaxies,” Ap.J. 699, L178-L182 (2009).

Abazajian, Kevork N., et al, “The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” Ap.J. Supp. 182, 543-58 (2009).

Sehgal, Neelima, et al, “Simulations of the Microwave Sky,” Ap.J. 709, 920-36 (2010).

Ciotti, Luca, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, & Daniel Proga, “Feedback from Central Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies. III. Models with Both Radiative and Mechanical Feedback,” Ap.J. 717, 708-23 (2010).

Oser, Ludwig, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Thorsten Naab, Peter J. Johansson, & Andreas Burkert, “The Two Phases of Galaxy Formation,” Ap.J. 725, 2312-23 (2010).

Trac, Hy, Paul Bode, & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Templates for the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Angular Power Spectrum,” Ap.J. 727, 94 (2011).

Hambrick, D.C.; J.P. Ostriker, P.H. Johansson, &T. Naab,“The Effects of X-ray and UV Background Radiation on the Low-mass Slope of the Galaxy Mass Function,” MNRAS 413, 2421-28 (2011).

Liu, Chao, Feng Yuan, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Zhaoming Gan, & Xiaohong Yang, “Radiation-driven Outflow in Active Galactic Nuclei: The Feedback Effects of Scattered and Reprocessed Photons,” MNRAS 434, 1721-35 (2013).

Search ADS for works by Ostriker.

Other Works: Popularizations, History, etc.

Ostriker, J.P., “The Nature of Pulsars,” Scientific American 224, 1, 48-60 (1971).

Bahcall, John N. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Lyman Spitzer Jr” [obituary], Physics Today 50, 10, 123-24 (1997).

Draine, Bruce T. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, “Obituary: Bohdan Paczyński (1940-2007),” Nature 447, 1064 (2007).

Ostriker, Jeremiah P. & Simon Mitton, Heart of Darkness: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Invisible Universe (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 2013).