Research

I'm a Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellow in the IoA at Cambridge. My research involves understanding two main topics: the origins of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and the physics of winds and jets from accreting systems, particularly active galactic nuclei.

These two subjects are inextricably linked. You can find more information on my personal website or by checking out my publications.

Selected papers

Hot, dense He II outflows during the 2017 outburst of the X-ray transient Swift J1357.2-0933 2019 
Charles, P., Matthews, J. H., Buckley, D., Gandhi P.; Kotze, E.; Paice, J.
MNRAS Letters, 489, L47

Cosmic ray acceleration by shocks: spectral steepening due to turbulent magnetic field amplification 2019
Bell, A., Matthews, J. H., Blundell, K. 
MNRAS, 488, 2466.

Ultra-high energy cosmic rays from shocks in the lobes of radio galaxies 2019
Matthews, J. H., Bell, A., Blundell, K., Araudo, A., 
MNRAS, 482, 4303, arXiv:1810.12350

The origin of radio emission in broad absorption line quasars: Results from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey 2019
Morabito, L., K., Matthews, J. H., P.N. Best, G. Gurkan, M. Jarvis, et al. 
A&A, 622, 15

Fornax A, Centaurus A other radio galaxies as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays 2018
Matthews, J. H., Bell. A., Blundell, K., Araudo, A., 
MNRAS Letters, 479, 76

Radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of thermally driven disc winds in X-ray binaries 2017
Higginbottom, N., Knigge, C., Long, K. S. Matthews, J. H., et al., 
MNRAS, 479, 3651

Cosmic Ray Acceleration by Relativistic Shocks: Limits and Estimates 2018
Bell. A., Araudo, A., Matthews, J. H., Blundell, K. 
MNRAS, 473, 2364

Amplification of perpendicular and parallel magnetic fields by cosmic ray currents 2017
Matthews, J. H., Bell. A., Blundell, K., Araudo, A. 
MNRAS, 469, 1849

Quasar emission lines as probes of orientation: implications for disc wind geometries and unification 2017
Matthews, J. H.; Knigge, C.; Long, K. S. 
MNRAS, 467, 2571

Testing Quasar Unification: Radiative Transfer in Clumpy Winds 2016
Matthews, J. H.; Knigge, C.; Long, K. S.; Sim, S. A.; Higginbottom, N.. Mangham, S. W. 
MNRAS, 458, 293

Career

2016-2019 - Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford. PIs: Prof Tony  Bell and Prof Katherine Blundell.

2012-2016 - PhD Astrophysics University of Southampton. Supervisor: Prof Christian Knigge