Dimitri Veras, Ph.D.

Last updated: Jan. 10th, 2012

Hi, I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. My current research includes merging planetary, stellar and galactic dynamics primarily through free-floating planets, the death of stars, and Milky Way tides, streams and molecular clouds. I have also recently dabbled in work relating to the planet-finding Kepler space mission. You can view recent media attention about my work from National Geographic, New Scientist and The Daily Mail .

I was formerly a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Florida, where I worked extensively with Eric B. Ford on the dynamics and evolution of planetary systems. I conducted my graduate research on this same topic in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder with Philip J. Armitage.  My Ph.D. dissertation is entitled, "The Orbital Evolution of Extrasolar Planets After Formation." I attained my undergraduate degree with majors in astronomy, and physics and mathematics, at Yale University . A list of my refereed journal publications is below. If you cannot access the papers through your institution but wish to do so, then email me! Feel free to contact me at: dimitri [dot] veras [at] colorado [dot] edu.

In addition to research, I have a keen interest in astronomical trivia and associated outreach activities, and am always looking for new applications. I have also been creating geographic astronomy department maps, and welcome your feedback.



Dimitri Veras

REFEREED PUBLICATIONS (email me if you would like a PDF):


-- Veras, D., Raymond, S.N., 2012. "Planet-Planet Scattering Alone Cannot Explain the Free-Floating Planet Population", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, In Press.  

-- Veras, D., Wyatt, M.C., 2012. "The Solar System's Post-Main Sequence Escape Boundary", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, In Press.  

-- Veras, D., Ford, E.B., 2012. "Identifying Non-resonant Kepler Planetary Systems", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, In Press.  

-- Veras, D., Wyatt, M.C., Mustill, A.J., Bonsor, A., Eldridge, J.J., 2011. "The Great Escape: How Exoplanets and Smaller Bodies Desert Dying Stars", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 417, pp. 2104-2123.   ADS Article of the Day on Aug. 30, 2011  

-- Veras, D., Ford, E.B., Payne, M.J., 2011. "Quantifying the Challenges of Detecting Unseen Planetary Companions with Transit Timing Variations", Astrophysical Journal, 727, pp. 74-97.  

-- Wright, J.T., Veras, D., Ford, E.B., Johnson, J.A., Marcy, G.W., Howard, A.W., Isaacson, H., Fischer, D.A., Spronk, J., Anderson, J., Valenti, J., 2011. "The California Planet Survey III. A Possible 2:1 Resonance in the Exoplanetary Triple System HD 37124", Astrophysical Journal, 730, pp. 93-102  

-- Ford, E., Moorhead, A., Veras, D., 2011. "A Bayesian Surrogate Model for Rapid Time Series Analysis and Application to Exoplanet Observations", Bayesian Analysis, 6, pp. 475-500  

-- Veras, D., Ford, E.B., 2010. "Secular Orbital Dynamics of Hierarchical Two Planet Systems", Astrophysical Journal, 715, pp. 803-822. Online Tables are here    

-- Payne, M.J., Ford, E.B., Veras, D. 2010. "Transit Timing Variations for Inclined and Retrograde Exoplanetary Systems", Astrophysical Journal Letters, 712, pp. L86-L92.  

-- Veras, D., Crepp, J.R., Ford, E.B., 2009. "Formation, Survival, and Detectability of Planets Beyond 100 AU", Astrophysical Journal, 696, pp. 1600-1611.  

-- Veras, D., Ford, E.B., 2009. "Secular Evolution of HD 12661: a System Caught at an Unlikely Time", Astrophysical Journal Letters, 690, pp. L1-L4.  

-- Dodson-Robinson, S.E., Veras, D., Ford, E.B., Beichman, C.A., 2009. "The Formation Mechanisms of Gas Giants on Wide Orbits" , Astrophysical Journal, 707, pp. 79-88.  

-- Raymond, S.N., Barnes, R., Veras, D., Armitage, P.J., Gorelick, N., Greenberg, R., 2009. "Planet-planet Scattering Leads to Tightly Packed Planetary Systems", Astrophysical Journal Letters, 696, pp. L98-L101.  

-- Wright, J.T., Fischer, D.A., Ford, E.B., Veras, D., Wang, J., Henry, G.W., Marcy, G.W., Howard, A.W., Asher, J., 2009. "A Third Planet Orbiting HIP 14810", Astrophysical Journal Letters, 699, pp. L97-L101.  

-- Ford, E.B., Quinn, S.N., Veras, D., 2008. "Characterizing the Orbital Eccentricities of Transiting Extrasolar Planets with Photometric Observations", Astrophysical Journal, 678, pp. 1407-1418.  

-- Veras, D., 2007. "A Resonant Term-Based-Model Including a Nascent Disk, Precession, and Oblateness: Application to GJ 876", Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 99, pp. 197-243.  

-- Veras, D., Armitage, P.J., 2007. "Extrasolar planetary dynamics with a generalized planar Laplace-Lagrange secular theory", Astrophysical Journal, 661, pp. 1311-1322.  

-- Veras, D., Armitage P.J., 2006. "Predictions for the correlation between giant and terrestrial extrasolar planets in dynamically evolved systems", Astrophysical Journal, 645, pp. 1509-1515.  

-- Veras, D., Armitage P.J., 2005. "The influence of massive planet scattering on nascent terrestrial planets", Astrophysical Journal Letters, 620, pp. L111-L114.  

-- Veras, D., Armitage P.J., 2004. "The dynamics of two massive planets on inclined orbits", Icarus, 172, pp. 349-371.  

-- Veras, D., Armitage P.J., 2004. "Outward migration of extrasolar planets to large orbital radii", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 347, pp. 613-624.  

-- Asghari, N., et al. 2004. "Stability of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of Gl 777 A, HD 72659, Gl 614, 47 Uma and HD 4208", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 426, pp. 353-365.