research overview
- Toomre's research centers on astrophysical fluid dynamics (AFD), with particular emphasis on nonlinear theories for compressible convection and dynamos in stars including the Sun, and in studying nonlinear dynamical systems exhibiting multiple bifurcations and chaos. Extensive use is made in the 3-D turbulence simulations of massively parallel supercomputers and substantial visualization systems. Toomre is active in helioseismology, using observations of the frequency-splitting of five-minute oscillationsof the sun to search for subphotospheric flows, large-scale structures and differential rotation in the convection zone; inverse theory has been developed to interpret the data.