RESEARCH

Here is a subset of the topics I find interesting and am currently working on.

Black Hole Accretion
Matter falling into a black hole can encounter some of the most extreme conditions in the Universe. The light emitted as this happens can teach us about the physics at play in these systems, including strong gravity, plasma physics, and radiative processes. Understanding these phenomena is crucial to answering a broad set of questions about the nature of the Universe.
Core-collapse Supernovae
When a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel, it collapses and may form an enormous explosion called a core-collapse supernova. Though most agree we have at least listed the basic ingredients in producing these explosions, definitive answers about which stars explode and why remain elusive despite more than five decades of research.
Multiphysics Numerical Methods
Modern simulations are often quite sophisticated in terms of the range of included physical processes. The traditional approach to bringing these ingredients together is the simple operator split. I'm interested in exploring more advanced techniques that bring together physics that may operate on vastly different length and time scales while maintaining high accuracy and enabling efficient, highly scalable implementations.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

Ph.D. Astronomy, 2011
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Advisor: Charles F. Gammie
Dissertation: “Self-Consistent Dynamical and Radiative Models of Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei”
M.S. Astronomy, 2009
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S. Physics, 2006
Florida Institute of Technology
B.S. Space Sciences, Astronomy/Astrophysics option, 2006
Florida Institute of Technology

Positions

Staff Scientist, June 2015–
Nicholas C. Metropolis Postdoctoral Fellow, August 2014–June 2015
Computational Physics and Methods, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Associate Research Scholar, May 2013–August 2014
Postdoctoral Research Associate, September 2011–May 2013
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow, September 2010–September 2011
Graduate Research Assistant, May 2007–August 2010
Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Selected Awards, Distinctions, & Activities

Project Leader, ASC Eulerian Hydrodynamics Project
Scalable Methods Team Leader for LANL's Next Generation Code (LA Ristra) Project
Chair, Institutional Computing Advisory Board
LDRD Early Career Research award
Member, Horizon Collaboration
Member, TEAMS SciDAC collaboration
Member, Supernova Multi-messenger Consortium
Los Alamos Awards Program, CNTA Project
Reviewer for NASA Astrophysics Theory Program
Reviewer for DOE ASCR ALCC Program
Reviewer for LANL Institutional Computing
Reviewer for LDRD ER NPAC
Reviewer for LANL CSES Program
Reviewer for NASA's Fermi Guest Investigator Program
PI/Co-PI for 100+ million core-hours of computing time since 2012
Organizer for funded program at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science
Referee for multiple journals including Astrophysical Journal and MNRAS
NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
Best Graduate Paper/Presentation, 9^th LCI International Conference on High-Performance Clustered Computing
Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society
Florida Insitute of Technology Presidential Scholarship
Florida Bright Futures Scholarship

Mentoring

Postdoctoral Scientists—Roseanne Cheng (Metropolis Fellow), Jonas Lippuner (CNLS Fellow), Jonah Miller (CNLS Fellow), Benjamin Ryan (Director's Fellow), Ingo Tews (CNLS Fellow)
Graduate Students—Benjamin Ryan (UIUC), Cole Holcomb (Princeton), Sherwood Richers (Caltech), Timothy Waters (UNLV), Patrick Mullen (UIUC)
Schools—2016 & 2019 ISTI/ASC Co-Design Summer Schools

Invited Talks

Simulations of Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions, XXX IUPAP Conference on Computational Physics, Davis, CA, July 2018
TBD: Transporting non-Bosons for Dummies, Microphysics in Relativistic Astrophysics, NSCL, East Lansing, MI, July 2017
Results of Core-collapse Modeling for a Variety of Progenitors, Stellar Hydro Days IV, UVic, Victoria, BC, May 2017
Overview of Core-collapse Explosion Mechanisms, Phenomena, Physics, and Puzzles of Massive Stars and their Explosive Outcomes, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CA, March 2017
Core-collapse Modeling in 2030 and Beyond, Workshop on core-collapse supernovae, their signatures in gravitational waves, and their detection with ground-based laser interferometers, Pasadena, CA, March 2017
GR Transport Methods, Horizon Collaboration Meeting, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, January 2017
A New Class of Hydrodynamics Solvers in xRage: a Progress Report, EAP Colloquium, LANL, Los Alamos, NM, September 2016
Multi-physics Models of Black Hole Accretion, Simulations and Modeling of Relativistic MHD Accretion Discs, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, July 2016
The Directionally-unsplit Hydro Method in the Fornax Code, Hydro Study Group, LANL, Los Alamos, NM, October 2015
Simulating Extreme Astrophysics: Black Hole Accretion and Core-collapse Supernovae, University of Virginia/NRAO Joint Colloquium, Charlottesville, VA, February 2014
Petascale Challenges in Astrophysics: Core-collapse Supernovae, Computational Sciences Applications Performing at Petascale Level and Beyond, SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, Boston, MA, February 2013
Multidimensional Hydrodynamics of Core-collapse Supernovae, Core-collapse Supernovae: Models and Observable Signals, Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, July 2012
Numerical Models of Sgr A* and Beyond, Bringing Black Holes into Focus: the Event Horizon Telescope, Tucson, AZ, January 2012

PUBLICATIONS

Summary (updated 2/1/19)
Citations: 1234
h-index: 19

Convection-Aided Explosions in One-Dimensional Core-Collapse Supernova Simulations I: Technique and Validation Mabanta, Q. A., Murphy, J. W., Dolence, J. C., ApJ, submitted
Fornax: a Flexible Code for Multiphysics Astrophysical Simulations, Skinner, M. A., Dolence, J. C., Burrows, A., Radice, D., Vartanyan, D., 2019, ApJS, accepted
A successful 3D core-collapse supernova explosion model, Vartanyan, D., Burrows, A., Radice, D., Skinner, M. A., Dolence, J., 2019, MNRAS, 482, 351
Two-temperature GRRMHD Simulations of M87, Ryan, B. R., Ressler, S. M., Dolence, J. C., Gammie, C., Quataert, E., 2018, ApJ, 864, 126
Revival of the fittest: exploding core-collapse supernovae from 12 to 25 M_☉, Vartanyan, D., Burrows, A., Radice, D., Skinner, M. A., Dolence, J., 2018, MNRAS, 477, 3091
Crucial Physical Dependencies of the Core-Collapse Supernova Mechanism, Burrows, A., Vartanyan, D., Dolence, J. C., Skinner, M. A., Radice, D., 2018, Space Science Reviews, 214, 33
Electron-capture and Low-mass Iron-core-collapse Supernovae: New Neutrino-radiation-hydrodynamics Simulations, Radice, D., Burrows, A., Vartanyan, D., Skinner, M. A., Dolence, J. C., 2017, ApJ, 850, 43
A Detailed Comparison of Multidimensional Boltzmann Neutrino Transport Methods in Core-collapse Supernovae, Richers, S., Nagakura, H., Ott, C. D., Dolence, J., Sumiyoshi, K., Yamada, S., 2017, ApJ, 847, 133
The Radiative Efficiency and Spectra of Slowly Accreting Black Holes from Two-temperature GRRMHD Simulations, Ryan, B. R., Ressler, S. M., Dolence, J. C., Tchekhovskoy, A., Gammie, C., Quataert, E., 2017, ApJL, 844, 24
An Integral Condition for Core-collapse Supernova Explosions, Murphy, J. W., Dolence, J. C., 2017, ApJ, 834, 183
Should One Use the Ray-by-Ray Approximation in Core-collapse Supernova Simulations?, Skinner, M. A., Burrows, A., Dolence, J. C., 2016, 831, 81
A MAD model for gamma-ray burst variability, Lloyd-Ronning, N., Dolence, J. C., Fryer, C. L., 2016, MNRAS, 461, 1045
Detecting the Supernova Breakout Burst in Terrestrial Neutrino Detectors, Wallace, J., Burrows, A., Dolence, J. C., 2016, ApJ, 817, 182
bhlight: General Relativistic Radiation Magnetohydrodynamics with Monte Carlo Transport, Ryan, B. R., Dolence, J. C., Gammie, C. F., 2015, ApJ, 807, 31
Two-dimensional Core-collapse Supernova Models with Multi-dimensional Transport, Dolence, J. C., Burrows, A., Zhang, W., 2015, ApJ, 800, 10
The SDSS galaxy angular two-point correlation function, Wang, Y., Brunner, R. J., Dolence, J. C., 2013, MNRAS, 432, 1961
The Dominance of Neutrino-driven Convection in Core-collapse Supernovae, Murphy, J. W., Dolence, J. C., Burrows, A., 2013, ApJ, 771, 52
Dimensional Dependence of the Hydrodynamics of Core-collapse Supernovae, Dolence, J. C., Burrows, A., Murphy, J. W., Nordhaus, J., 2013, ApJ, 765, 110
CASTRO: A New Compressible Astrophysical Solver. III. Multigroup Radiation Hydrodynamics, Zhang, W., Howell, L., Almgren, A., Burrows, A., Dolence J., Bell, J., 2013, ApJS, 204, 7
An Investigation into the Character of Pre-explosion Core-collapse Supernova Shock Motion, Burrows, A., Dolence, J. C., Murphy, J. W., 2012, ApJ, 759, 5
A New Monte Carlo Method for Time-dependent Neutrino Radiation Transport, Abdikamalov, E., Burrows, A., Ott, C. D., Löffler, F., O'Connor, E., Dolence, J. C., Schnetter, E., 2012, ApJ, 755, 111
The Galactic Center Weather Forecast, Mościbrodzka, M., Shiokawa, H., Gammie, C. F., Dolence, J. C., 2012, ApJL, 752, 1
Near-infrared and X-Ray Quasi-periodic Oscillations in Numerical Models of Sgr A*, Dolence, J. C., Gammie, C. F., Shiokawa, H., Noble, S. C., 2012, ApJL, 746, 10
Global General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Black Hole Accretion Flows: A Convergence Study, Shiokawa, H., Dolence, J. C., Gammie, C. F., Noble, S. C., 2012, ApJ, 744, 187
Pair Production in Low-luminosity Galactic Nuclei, Mościbrodzka, M., Gammie, C. F., Dolence, J. C., Shiokawa, H., 2011, ApJ, 735, 9
Radiative Models of SGR A* from GRMHD Simulations, Mościbrodzka, M., Gammie, C. F., Dolence, J. C., Shiokawa, H., Leung, P. K., 2009, ApJ, 706, 497
grmonty: A Monte Carlo Code for Relativistic Radiative Transport, Dolence, J. C., Gammie, C. F., Mościbrodzka, M., Leung, P. K., 2009, ApJS, 184, 387
SPH Simulations of Direct Impact Accretion in the Ultracompact AM CVn Binaries, Dolence, J., Wood, M. A., Silver, I., 2008, ApJ, 683, 375
A Hard-to-Soft State Transition during a Luminosity Decline of Aquila X-1, Yu, W., Dolence, J., 2007, ApJ, 667, 1043
FITDisk: A Cataclysmic Variable Accretion Disk Demonstration Tool", Wood, M. A., Dolence, J., Simpson, J. C., 2006, PASP, 118, 442

TEAM

JOSH DOLENCE

STAFF, COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS & METHODS, CCS-2

Core-collapse supernovae, black hole accretion, numerical methods

ROSEANNE CHENG

METROPOLIS FELLOW, COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS & METHODS, CCS-2

Tidal disruption events, overset mesh methods

JONAH MILLER

CNLS FELLOW, COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS & METHODS, CCS-2

Numerical relativity, numerical methods, hydrodynamics

BENJAMIN RYAN

DIRECTOR'S FELLOW, COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS & METHODS, CCS-2

Black hole astrophysics, radiation transport, magnetohydrodynamics, numerical methods

INGO TEWS

CNLS FELLOW, NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS, ASTROPHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY, T-2

Nuclear matter, chiral EFT, nuclear astrophysics

BLACK HOLE ACCRETION

CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVAE

HYDRODYNAMICS METHODS

BIOSKETCH