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Dr Chris Gordon

Contact

Department: School of Physical & Chemical Sciences

Email: chris.gordon@canterbury.ac.nz

Direct Dial: +64 3 3695156

Office: Julius von Haast 617

Language: English

About
Research / Creative works
Supervision
Networks
Methods & Equipment

Researcher Summary

My research interests are in astroparticle physics and cosmology. I am particularly interested in finding non-gravitational evidence for dark matter. This has led me to investigate the astrophysics of the Galactic Centre. It is there that the non-gravitational signatures of dark matter are likely to be largest. In particular dark matter may be self-annihilating into ordinary matter which could produce electromagnetic radiation such as gamma rays. However, there are also a lot of other astrophysical processes taking place in the Galactic Center which produce electromagnetic radiation. In particular millisecond pulsars produce a very similar signal to dark matter self-annihilation. These other astrophysical processes have to be accurately accounted for before one can determine if there is any residual electromagnetic radiation due to dark matter self-annihilation.

In the past I have also worked on projects related to inflation, the cosmic microwave background, large scale structure and galaxy clusters.

Subject Area: Disciplines

  • Physics: Astronomy; Astrophysics; Cosmology; Theoretical Physics

Resources

  • SPCS webpage
  • Inspire Citations
  • LinkedIn
  • Google scholar citations

Research/Scholarly/Creative Works

Journal Articles
  • Crocker RM., Macias O., Mackey D., Krumholz MR., Ando S., Horiuchi S., Baring MG., Gordon C., Venville T. and Duffy AR. (2022) Gamma-ray emission from the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy due to millisecond pulsars. Nature Astronomy 6(11): 1317-1324. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01777-x.
  • Gautam A., Crocker RM., Ferrario L., Ruiter AJ., Ploeg H., Gordon C. and Macias O. (2022) Millisecond pulsars from accretion-induced collapse as the origin of the Galactic Centre gamma-ray excess signal. Nature Astronomy 6(6): 703-707. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01658-3.
  • Pohl M., Macias O., Coleman P. and Gordon C. (2022) Assessing the Impact of Hydrogen Absorption on the Characteristics of the Galactic Center Excess. Astrophysical Journal 929(2) http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac6032.
  • Satherley JC. and Gordon C. (2022) A pedagogical review of the vacuum retarded dipole model of pulsar spin down. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 39 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pasa.2022.35.
  • Ploeg H. and Gordon C. (2021) The effect of kick velocities on the spatial distribution of millisecond pulsars and implications for the Galactic center excess. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2021(10) http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/10/020.
  • Ploeg H., Gordon C., Crocker R. and Macias O. (2021) Erratum: Comparing the galactic bulge and galactic disk millisecond pulsars (Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (2020) 12 (35) DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2020/12/035). Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2021(7) http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/07/E01.
  • Coleman B., Paterson D., Gordon C., Macias O. and Ploeg H. (2020) Maximum entropy estimation of the Galactic bulge morphology via the VVV Red Clump. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 495(3): 3350-3372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1281.
  • Paterson D., Coleman B. and Gordon C. (2020) Non-parametric density reconstruction of the Galactic bulge area using red clump stars in the VVV survey. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 499(2): 1937-1947. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2834.
  • Ploeg H., Gordon C., Crocker R. and Macias O. (2020) Comparing the galactic bulge and galactic disk millisecond pulsars. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2020(12) http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2020/12/035.
  • Macias O., Horiuchi S., Kaplinghat M., Gordon C., Crocker RM. and Nataf DM. (2019) Strong evidence that the galactic bulge is shining in gamma rays. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2019(9) http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2019/09/042.
  • Macias O., Gordon C., Crocker R., Coleman B., Paterson D., Horiuchi S. and Pohl M. (2018) Galactic bulge preferred over dark matter for the Galactic centre gamma-ray excess. Nature Astronomy http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0414-3.
  • Ploeg H., Gordon C., Crocker R. and Macias O. (2017) Consistency between the luminosity function of resolved millisecond pulsars and the galactic center excess. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2017(08) 015: 36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2017/08/015.
  • Lacroix T., Macias O., Gordon C., Panci P., Bœhm C. and Silk J. (2016) Spatial morphology of the secondary emission in the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess. Physical Review D 93(10) 103004: 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.103004.
  • Macias O., Gordon C., Crocker RM. and Profumo S. (2015) Cosmic ray models of the ridge-like excess of gamma rays in the Galactic Centre. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 451(2): 1833-1847. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1002.
  • Gordon C. and Macías O. (2014) Erratum: Dark matter and pulsar model constraints from Galactic Center Fermi-LAT gamma-ray observations (Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology (2013) 88 (083521)). Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 89(4) http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.049901.
  • Macias O. and Gordon C. (2014) Contribution of cosmic rays interacting with molecular clouds to the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess. Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology 89: 63515-63515. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.063515.
  • Gordon C. and Macías O. (2013) Dark matter and pulsar model constraints from Galactic Center Fermi-LAT gamma-ray observations. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 88(8) 083521: 18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.88.083521.
  • Gordon C. and Saffin PM. (2013) Adiabatic and Isocurvature Perturbation Projections in Multi-Field Inflation. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 8 021: 9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2013/08/021.
  • Macías-Ramírez O., Gordon C., Brown AM. and Adams J. (2012) Evaluating the Gamma-Ray Evidence for Self-Annihilating Dark Matter from the Virgo Cluster. Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology 86(7) 076004: 6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.86.076004.
  • Cayón L., Gordon C. and Silk J. (2011) Probability of the most massive cluster under non-Gaussian initial conditions. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 415(1): 849-853. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18770.x.
  • Chantavat T., Gordon C. and Silk J. (2011) Large scale structure forecast constraints on particle production during inflation. Physical Review D 83(10): 103501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.103501.
  • Ma YZ., Gordon C. and Feldman HA. (2011) Peculiar velocity field: Constraining the tilt of the Universe. Physical Review D 83(10): 103002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.103002.
  • Paranjape A., Gordon C. and Hotchkiss S. (2011) Extreme tail of the non-Gaussian mass function. Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology 84(2): 23517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.023517.
  • Kuroyanagi S., Gordon C., Silk J. and Sugiyama N. (2010) Erratum: Forecast constraints on inflation from combined CMB and gravitational wave direct detection experiments [Phys. Rev. D 81, 083524 (2010)]. Physical Review D 82(6): 69901. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.069901.
  • Kuroyanagi S., Gordon C., Silk J. and Sugiyama N. (2010) Forecast constraints on inflation from combined CMB and gravitational wave direct detection experiments. Physical Review D 81(8): 83524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.81.083524.
  • Chantavat T., Gordon C. and Silk J. (2009) Probing the primordial power spectrum with cluster number counts. Physical Review D 79(8): 83508. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.79.083508.
  • Gordon C. and Pritchard JR. (2009) Forecasted 21cm constraints on compensated isocurvature perturbations. Physical Review D 80(6): 63535. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.063535.
  • Gordon C., Land K. and Slosar A. (2008) Determining the motion of the Solar system relative to the cosmic microwave background using Type Ia supernovae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 387(1): 371-376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13239.x.
  • Gordon C. (2007) Broken Isotropy from a Linear Modulation of the Primordial Perturbations. The Astrophysical Journal 656(2): 636-640. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/510511.
  • Gordon C. and Trotta R. (2007) Bayesian calibrated significance levels applied to the spectral tilt and hemispherical asymmetry. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 382(4): 1859-1863. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12707.x.
  • Gordon C., Land K. and Slosar A. (2007) Cosmological constraints from type ia supernovae peculiar velocity measurements. Physical Review Letters 99(8): 81301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.081301.
  • Gordon C. (2005) A Separate Universe Approach to Quintessence Perturbations. Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplements 148: 51-55.
  • Gordon C. and Wands D. (2005) Amplitude of dark energy perturbations. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 71(12): 1-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.71.123505.
  • Gordon C., Hu W., Huterer D. and Crawford T. (2005) Spontaneous isotropy breaking: A mechanism for CMB multipole alignments. Physical Review D 72(10): 103002.
  • Gordon C. and Hu W. (2004) Low CMB quadrupole from dark energy isocurvature perturbations. Physical Review D 70(8): 83003.
  • Gordon C. and Malik KA. (2004) WMAP, neutrino degeneracy, and non-Gaussianity constraints on isocurvature perturbations in the curvaton model of inflation. Physical Review D 69(6): 63508.
  • Gordon C. and Lewis A. (2003) Curvaton model constraints from WMAP. New Astronomy Reviews 47(8-10): 793-796. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2003.07.021.
  • Gordon C. and Lewis A. (2003) Observational constraints on the curvaton model of inflation. Physical Review D 67(12): 123513.
  • Gordon C. and Turok N. (2003) Cosmological perturbations through a general relativistic bounce. Physical Review D 67(12): 123508.
  • Gumjudpai B., Maartens R. and Gordon C. (2003) Density perturbations in a braneworld universe with dark radiation. Classical and Quantum Gravity 20: 3295-3306.
  • Amendola L., Gordon C., Wands D. and Sasaki M. (2002) Correlated perturbations from inflation and the cosmic microwave background. Physical Review Letters 88(21): 2113021-2113024. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.211302.
  • Berera A. and Gordon C. (2001) Inflationary initial conditions consistent with causality. Physical Review D 63(6): 63505.
  • Gordon C. and Maartens R. (2001) Density perturbations in the brane-world. Physical Review D 63(4): 44022.
  • Gordon C., Wands D., Bassett BA. and Maartens R. (2001) Adiabatic and entropy perturbations from inflation. Physical Review D 63(2): 23506.
  • Bassett BA. and Maartens R. (2000) Restoring the sting to metric preheating. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 61(6) http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.61.061302.
  • Gordon C. (2000) A generalization of the maximum noise fraction transform. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 38: 608-610.
Conference Contributions - Published
  • Pohl M., Coleman P., Gordon C. and Macias O. (2022) Neutral atomic hydrogen absorption and the Galactic Center Excess. In Proceedings of Science 395.
  • Ploeg H., Gordon C., Crocker R. and Macias O. (2017) Resolved millisecond pulsars are consistent with the Galactic Center Excess. In Proceedings of Science 319.
  • Macias O., Gordon C., Crocker R. and Profumo S. (2015) Cosmic Rays Interacting with Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center. In Proceedings of Science PoS(ICRC2015)(902): 9.
  • Gordon C. and Macias O. (2014) Can Cosmic Rays Interacting With Molecular Clouds Explain The Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess? In (042): 8.
  • Gordon C. (2001) Entropy and adiabatic components in scalar field perturbations. In 20th Texas Symposium on relativistic astrophysics 586: 68-70.
  • Gordon C. (2001) Resolving scalar field perturbations into entropy and adiabatic components. In AIP Conference Proceedings 555(1): 297-300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1363530.
Conference Contributions - Other
  • Gordon C. (2017) Is the Galactic Centre Excess due to the X-shaped stellar over-density in the Galactic bulge? Congress Center Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany: 7th International Fermi Symposium, 15-20 Oct 2017.
  • Gordon C. (2016) Accounting for secondary emission in the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess. Palm Cove, Queensland: The Multi-Messenger Astrophysics of the Galactic Centre.
  • Gordon C. and Macias O. (2014) Are excess gamma rays from the Galactic Center caused by cosmic rays? Auckland, New Zealand: Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, 8-12 Dec 2014.
  • Gordon C. and Macias O. (2014) Evaluating the evidence for dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Center. Montpellier, France: Cosmic Rays & their Interstellar Medium Environment (CRISM-2014), 24-27 Jun 2014.
  • Gordon C. (2013) Dark Matter and Pulsar Model Constraints from Galactic Observations. Nelson, New Zealand: New Zealand Institute of Physics Conference, 27-30 Sep 2013.
  • Gordon C. and Macias O. (2013) Dark Matter and Pulsar Model Constraints from Galactic Center Fermi-LAT Gamma Ray Observations. Santa Fe, NM, USA: International Astronomical Union Symposium (IAU): The Galactic Center: Feeding and Feedback in a Normal Galactic Nucleus, 30 Sep-4 Oct 2013.
  • Gordon C. (2012) Evaluating the Gamma-ray Evidence for Self-Annihilating Dark Matter from the Virgo Cluster. Monterey, CA, USA: Fourth International Fermi Symposium, 28 Oct-2 Nov 2012.
  • Gordon C. (2012) The extreme tail of the non-Gaussian mass function. Queenstown, New Zealand: The Sixth Australasian Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, 8-11 Feb 2012.
Theses / Dissertations
  • Gordon C. (2001) Adiabatic and entropy perturbations in cosmology. Great Britain. University of Portsmouth.
  • Gordon C. (1999) Artificial Neural Network Modeling of Forest Tree Growth. South Africa. University of the Witwatersrand.

Student Supervision

Displaying all items.
    Current
  • PhD - Dsouza I: Using 21cm observations to constrain axion dark matter
  • Masters - Satherley J: Search for Axions around Neutron Stars
  • Honours - Alexander J: Early Universe formation of axion miniclusters
  • Honours - Boucher K: N-body simulations of axion miniclusters
  • Completed
  • PhD - Coleman B: Characterisation of the Diffuse Gamma-ray Galactic Background (2020)
  • PhD - Macias Ramirez O: Astrophysical and cosmological constraints on dark matter (2014)
  • PhD - Paterson D: Astrophysical Constraints on Dark Matter (2020)
  • PhD - Ploeg H: The population of unresolved pulsars explanation of the Galactic Centre excess (2021)
  • Masters - Roberts B: Monte Carlo Model Checking in Gamma Ray Analysis (2017)
  • Masters - Ploeg HZD: The Population of Unresolved Pulsars Explanation of the Galactic Center Excess (2016)
  • Honours - Hills M: Predicting the Spatial Distributions of Galactic Millisecond Pulsars (2019)
  • Honours - Moss J: The Shape of the Galactic Bulge (2017)
  • Honours - Paterson D: Dylan (2014)
  • Honours - Pienaar P: Modelling Pulsar Spin Down (2021)
  • Honours - Satherley J: Neutron star models (2021)
  • Honours - Smith A: Comparing decomposition approaches in multi-field inflation (2013)
  • Honours - Thomas S: Dark Matter and Gamma-ray Observations (2012)

Review and Refereeing

Displaying all items.
  • Physical Review D; Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics ( 2012 - 2023)

Affiliations

  • International Astronomical Union (IAU) (Professional Organisation): Member
  • New Zealand Institute of Physics (NZIP) (Professional Organisation): University of Canterbury Representative
  • The New Zealand Astrostatistics and General Relativity Working Group (Professional Organisation): Member

Key Methodologies

  • data analysis
  • mathematical modeling
  • numerical methods
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