Principal Areas of Research
One principal area of Starburst research is concerned with the investigation of Galactic superwaves, intense cosmic ray particle barrages that travel to us from the center of our Galaxy and that can last for periods of up to several thousand years. Astronomical and geological evidence indicates that the last major superwave impacted our solar system around 12,000 to 16,000 years ago and produced abrupt changes of the Earth’s climate. The land mammal extinction episode that occurred during this interval was the worst since the extinction of the dinosaurs. There is a finite chance that one such event could arrive within the next few decades.
Another main area of Starburst research is concerned with the development of subquantum kinetics, a novel microphysics paradigm that incorporates concepts developed in the fields of system theory and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. One of its distinctive features is that it begins at the subquantum level for its point of departure. In choosing an adequate model to represent subquantum process, subquantum kinetics turns to the macroscopic natural world, to our understanding of how certain reaction-diffusion systems spontaneously evolve well-ordered wave patterns.