

Theoretical astrophysics in Potsdam
My name is Thomas Berlok and I am a postdoc at the Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) in Germany. I am part of the research section
Cosmology and High-energy Astrophysics which is lead by Christoph Pfrommer.
I moved to Berlin in 2017 after
finishing my PhD in the
Theoretical
Astrophysics Group at the University of Copenhagen (my advisors were Martin
Pessah, Tobias Heinemann and Troels Haugbølle).
My research focuses mostly on astrophysical fluid dynamics and plasma astrophysics. In terms of astrophysical systems, my work so far has primarily been on the dynamics of the intracluster medium in galaxy clusters and on cold streams feeding galaxies with fuel for star formation in the early universe (see my publication list below).
I use computer simulations for much of my work and I am interested in the underlying numerical methods as well as scientific computing in general. I am the main developer of Psecas (Pseudo-Spectral Eigenvalue Calculator with an Automated Solver, see code on Github) and
a Braginskii viscosity implementation in the moving mesh code Arepo.
During my PhD studies my advisors and I also developed a 2D hybrid-kinetic code for studying ions in
collisionless plasmas (this remains unpublished but details can be found in my PhD thesis which can be downloaded here).
Publications
My publications can be found on ADS or via the links below:







Quasi-global simulations of the ICM
Berlok
& Pessah, 2016, ApJ, 833, 2.
On Helium Mixing in Quasi-global Simulations of the Intracluster Medium.
Watch animation of figure 5.

