Research

I am currently pursuing an MPhil in Astronomy under the supervision of Mark Wyatt. 

My research broadly focuses on understanding dynamical interactions that sculpt the observed architectures of planetary systems and debris disks within our Galaxy. I apply methods from dynamical systems theory to study the periodic trajectories of small bodies in the vicinity of two or more significant gravitational potentials (multi-body orbital dynamics). From this analysis, we gain an understanding of (1) the natural bounded solution space and (2) emergent structures, e.g., stability bifurcations within periodic families of the dynamical system. These features enable robust modeling of sensitive dynamical environments and the natural transport of material within planetary systems.

Selected papers

A. Langford and L. M. Wiess, “A Dynamical Systems Theory Approach to the Theory of Circumbinary Orbits in the Circular Restricted Problem,” In Prep, 2022

A. Langford, C. Littlefield, P. Garnavich, M. R. Kennedy, S. Scaringi, and P. Szkody, “Searching for Diamagnetic Blob Accretion in the 74 day K2 Observation of v2400 Ophiuchi,” The Astronomical Journal, vol. 163, p. 4, Dec. 2021

Qualifications

B.S. in Physics, cum lade - University of Notre Dame 2022

Awards and Prizes

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship 2022

Outstanding Senior Physics Major, University of Notre Dame 2022

Phi Beta Kappa, University of Notre Dame 2022

Goldwater Scholarship 2021