About
Dr. Véronique Petit studied Physics at Université Laval in Québec City, Canada. Dr. Petit is interested in the lives of massive stars, which are tens of times more massive than our Sun, especially in the relatively new and rapidly evolving study of these stars’ intriguing magnetic fields. Dr. Petit uses state of the art observations to challenge, constrain, and guide quantitative theoretical models, within the context of large observing programs such as the Magnetism in Massive Star (MiMeS) and the Binarity and Magnetic Interactions in various classes of Stars (BinaMIcS) projects. Her key areas of expertise include optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray spectroscopy, optical spectropolarimetry, polarized radiative transfer, and Bayesian inference.
Professional Experience
2020 - present Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy University of Delaware
2017 - 2020 Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy University of Delaware
2014 - 2017 Assistant Professor of Physics & Space Science Florida Institute of Technology
2013 - 2014 Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Delaware
2010 - 2012 Instructor/Research Associate and FQRNT fellow.West Chester University
2009 - 2010 Lecturer, Research Assistant.Royal Military College of Canada
Education
2005 - 2011 Ph.D. (Physics), Université Laval
Thesis: “Spectropolarimetric study of magnetism in massive stars”
2003 - 2005 M.Sc. (Physics), Université Laval
Thesis: “Analysis and modeling of the Luminous Blue Variable star NGC 2363-V1 in giant eruption”
2000 - 2003 B.Sc. (Physics), Université Laval
Professional Affiliations
International Astronomical Union
American Astronomical Society
Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) Collaboration
Binarity and Magnetic Interactions in various classes of Stars (BinaMIcS) Collaboration
Magnetic OB[A] Stars with TESS: probing their Evolutionary and Rotational properties (MOBSTER) Collaboration
Teaching at University of Delaware (PHYS) and FIT (SPS)
Stellar Astrophysics, Graduate-level (SPS-5010/PHYS-633)
Observational Astronomy (SPS-2010)
Introductory Physics with Calculus (SPS-1001/PHYS-207)
Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics (SPS-4010)
Introduction to research (PHYS-468)
Concepts of the Universe (PHYS-144)
Recent Public Lectures
March 12 2019 Chester County Astronomical Society Speaker
Nov 9th 2018 Delaware Physics Open Education Network
Sept 23 2018 ChesMont Astronomical Society
Current Research Group Grants
$1.2M in external funding (including PI grants, fellowships, and sub-contracts)2021 - 2024 National Science Foundation
Collaborative Research: New Models Of Stellar Evolution To Understand The Past, Present & Future Of Magnetic Massive Stars
2018 - 2020 University of Delaware Research Foundation
The origin and fate of magnetic massive stars.
2018 - 2020 *Space Telescope Science Institute
Mapping the Structure and Kinematics of NGC 1624-2's Giant Magnetosphere.
2017 - 2022 National Science Foundation
Time Resolved Studies of Outflows from Massive Stars using the Observatory of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy.
Most Recent Publications
Das, B., Chandra, P., Shultz, M. E., Leto, P., Mikulášek, Z., Petit, V., & Wade, G. A. 2022, MNRAS, 517, 5756, "Testing a scaling relation between coherent radio emission and physical parameters of hot magnetic stars"
Keszthelyi, Z., de Koter, A., Götberg, Y., Meynet, G., Brands, S. A., Petit, V., Carrington, M., David-Uraz, A., Geen, S. T., Georgy, C., Hirschi, R., Puls, J., Ramalatswa, K. J., Shultz, M. E., & ud-Doula, A. 2022, MNRAS, 517, 2028, "The effects of surface fossil magnetic fields on massive star evolution: IV. Grids of models at Solar, LMC, and SMC metallicities"
Folsom, C. P., Ignace, R., Erba, C., Casini, R., del Pino Alemán, T., Gayley, K., Hobbs, K., Manso Sainz, R., Neiner, C., Petit, V., Shultz, M. E., & Wade, G. A. 2022, Astrophysics and Space Science, 367, 125, "Ultraviolet spectropolarimetry: investigating stellar magnetic field diagnostics"
Shultz, M. E., Casini, R., Cheung, M. C. M., David-Uraz, A., del Pino Alemán, T., Erba, C., Folsom, C. P., Gayley, K., Ignace, R., Keszthelyi, Z., Kochukhov, O., Nazé, Y., Neiner, C., Oksala, M., Petit, V., Scowen, P. A., Sudnik, N., ud-Doula, A., Vink, J. S., & Wade, G. A. 2022, Astrophysics and Space Science, 367, 120, "Ultraviolet spectropolarimetry with Polstar: using Polstar to test magnetospheric mass-loss quenching"
ud-Doula, A., Cheung, M. C. M., David-Uraz, A., Erba, C., Folsom, C. P., Gayley, K., Nazé, Y., Neiner, C., Petit, V., Prinja, R., Shultz, M. E., Sudnik, N., Vink, J. S., & Wade, G. A. 2022, Astrophysics and Space Science, 367, 117, "Ultraviolet spectropolarimetric diagnostics of hot star magnetospheres"
Das, B., Chandra, P., & Petit, V. 2022, MNRAS, 515, 2008, "What leads to premature upper cut-off frequencies of auroral radio emission from hot magnetic stars?"