David Michael Hernandez, Astrophysicist
Postdoctoral Fellow
Yale University
david.m.hernandez (-at-) yale.edu
Biographical Sketch
David M. Hernández (not to be confused with
this David Hernandez
) is a theoretical and computational astrophysicist. He is a
CycloAstro
fellow at Yale University. Previously, he was a
Minor Planet Center
Fellow and
Institute for Theory and Computation
associate at the Harvard--Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). David obtained his Bachelor of Science degree at the
University of Arizona
, where he was an
Arizona Flinn Scholar
and
U.S. Goldwater Scholar
. David completed his PhD in June 2018 at
MIT
, where he was an
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
, and held a three-year MIT Lyons fellowship and a Shah Zion fellowship. His thesis,
"Solving the N-body problem in astrophysics''
, was supervised by
Ed Bertschinger
. David's thesis committee also included
Mark Vogelsberger
and
Jesse Thaler
. David also held brief postdoctoral positions at
RIKEN CCS
and MIT. A shortened CV is available
here
.
David's research focuses on applications of the mathematical N-body problem, which describes the motions of planets, stars, and galaxies.
Past and Present Collaborators
Eric Agol
,
Edmund Bertschinger
,
Romeel Dave
,
Walter Dehnen
,
Sam Hadden
,
Matthew J. Holman
,
Junichiro Makino
,
Margaret Pan
,
Hanno Rein
,
Daniel Tamayo
,
Frank van den Bosch
,
Long Wang
,
Jack Wisdom
,
Richard Zeebe
.
Codes
Links to some codes I have worked on are available below. For other codes, feel free to contact me.
celmech
EnckeHH
MERCURIUS
(part of Rebound)
NbodyGradient
ReboundX
Universal.c
. This version has been updated from the version in Wisdom and Hernandez (2015), as described in Hernandez and Holman (2020).
Publications
A Google Scholar profile available
here
. A NASA ADS listing is available
here
.
''Switching integrators reversibly in the astrophysical N-body problem''
David M. Hernandez
and Walter Dehnen 2023, submitted to
MNRAS
''Simple physics and integrators accurately reproduce Mercury instability statistics''
Dorian S. Abbot,
David M. Hernandez
, Sam Hadden, Robert J. Webber, Georgios P. Afentakis, Jonathan Weare 2022, submitted to
ApJ
''Stepsize errors in the N-body problem: discerning Mercury’s true possible long-term orbits''
David M. Hernandez
, Richard E. Zeebe, Sam Hadden 2022,
MNRAS
510
, 4302.
''On the reliability of simulations of collisional stellar systems''
Long Wang and
David M. Hernandez
2022, submitted to
MNRAS.
''A differentiable N-body code for transit timing and dynamical modeling. I. Algorithm and derivatives''
Eric Agol,
David M. Hernandez
, Zachary Langford 2021,
MNRAS
507
, 1582.
''Significant Improvement in Planetary System Simulations from Statistical Averaging''
David M. Hernandez
, Eric Agol, Matthew J. Holman, and Sam Hadden 2021,
RNAAS
5
, 77.
''ENCKEHH: an integrator for gravitational dynamics with a dominant mass that achieves optimal error behaviour''
David M. Hernandez
and Matthew J. Holman 2021,
MNRAS
502
, 556.
''Refining the transit timing and photometric analysis of TRAPPIST-1: Masses, radii, densities, dynamics, and ephemerides''
Eric Agol and 34 coauthors including
David M. Hernandez
2020,
PSJ
2
, 1.
''Are long-term N-body simulations reliable?''
David M. Hernandez
, Sam Hadden, and Junichiro Makino 2020,
MNRAS
493
, 1913.
''REBOUNDx: a library for adding conservative and dissipative forces to otherwise symplectic N-body integrations''
Daniel Tamayo, Hanno Rein, Pengshuai Shi, and
David M. Hernandez
2020,
MNRAS
491
, 2885.
''Improving the accuracy of simulated chaotic N-body orbits using smoothness''
David M. Hernandez
2019,
MNRAS
490
, 4175.
''Should N-body integrators be symplectic everywhere in phase space?''
David M. Hernandez
2019,
MNRAS
486
, 5231.
''Hybrid symplectic integrators for planetary dynamics''
Hanno Rein,
David M. Hernandez
, Daniel Tamayo, and 6 coauthors 2019,
MNRAS
485
, 5490.
''The nature of the TRAPPIST--1 exoplanets''
Simon L. Grimm and 26 coauthors including
David M. Hernandez
2018,
A&A
613
, A68.
''Time-symmetric integration in astrophysics''
David M. Hernandez
and Edmund Bertschinger 2018,
MNRAS
475
, 5570.
''A study of symplectic integrators for planetary system problems: error analysis and comparisons''
David M. Hernandez
and Walter Dehnen 2017,
MNRAS
468
, 2614.
''Symplectic fourth-order maps for the collisional N-body problem''
Walter Dehnen and
David M. Hernandez
2017,
MNRAS
465
, 1201.
''Fast and reliable symplectic integration for planetary system N-body problems''
David M. Hernandez
2016,
MNRAS
458
, 4285.
''A Fast and Accurate Universal Kepler Solver without Stumpff Series''
Jack Wisdom and
David M. Hernandez
2015,
MNRAS
453
, 3015.
''Symplectic integration for the collisional gravitational N-body problem''
David M. Hernandez
and Edmund Bertschinger 2015,
MNRAS
452
, 1934.