William David Arnett

William David Arnett ( born 1940 ), known as David Arnett, is an American theoretical astrophysicist.

Arnett studied physics at the University of Kentucky (Bachelor 1961) and received his doctorate in 1965 with Alastair GW Cameron at Yale University. In 1965 he was at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies and 1967 to 1969 he was with William A. Fowler at Caltech before 1969, he was Assistant Professor at Rice University. In 1971 he became associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin and in 1975 professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. In 1977 he became a professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, where he remained until 1989. From 1988 he was a Regents Professor at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona. From 2007 he was also Chandrasekhar professor at the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics ( ICRA ), Rome -Pescara - Nice.

Arnett was a pioneer in the hydrodynamic simulation ( with radiation coupling and transport) of the gravitational collapse, for example, in the formation of neutron stars and black holes and supernovae. He made predictions about the resulting elements abundances and the light curves, in which he predicted 1977 new types ( Ib and Ic). He also studied stellar models and computer modeling of turbulent fluids and related to convection in stars.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Astronomical Society. In 1980 he was awarded with JW Truran the Distinguished Graduate Award from Yale University and the 1981 U.S. Senior Scientist Humboldt Award. In 2008 he was Lecturer in the Chandrasekhar Bose Center in Kolkata. In 2009 he received the Hans A. Bethe - Prize. In 2012 he was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship and the Marcel Grossmann Award.

Writings

• Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis. An Investigation of the History of Matter, from the Big Bang to the present. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, among others 1996, ISBN 0-691-01148-6.
• As editor with James W. Truran: Nucleosynthesis. Challenges and new Developments. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL, among other things, 1985, ISBN 0-226-02787-2.
• As editor with David Schramm: Explosive Nucleosynthesis. Proceedings of the Conference on Explosive Nucleosynthesis. Held in Austin, Tex., April 2-3 1973. University of Texas Press, Austin TX, among others in 1973.