I am Giovanni M. Mirouh, a French-Italian astronomer.
I obtained my PhD. in 2016 from the University of Toulouse (France), before postdocs at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA, Italy) and the University of Surrey (UK). In 2021, I have moved Granada (Spain), working first at the University and now at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía.

My work focuses on developing tools and methods for the asteroseismology and evolution of main-sequence stars. The main hurdles are the presence of rapid rotation, activity and/or a binary companion. I work with 1D and 2D models and oscillation codes, and I have also worked on stellar population synthesis. My expertise mostly covers rapidly-rotating δ Scuti stars in isolation, binary systems, or clusters within the PLATO space mission framework. I recently started working on M dwarfs to prepare the MOSAIC and ANDES spectrographs to be installed at ELT.

My CV More about PLATO More about the ELT

Research lines

Asteroseismology of rapid rotators

Most stars earlier than F5 harbour a rapid rotation. Centrifugal and Coriolis forces cause the stars to be oblate and present a surface temperature gradient, and modify oscillation geometries and frequencies drastically. I work at pushing forward our fundamental understanding of the impact of rotation on the stellar internal structure and evolution. δ Scuti pulsators (i.e. main-sequence variable stars of spectral types A0 to F5) are the perfect laboratory.

By expanding well-established techniques and developing new ones, I design analysis strategies to describe these rapid rotators. These include the use of 1D and 2D models, perturbative and complete oscillation calculations, machine learning for mode classification, visibilities and more ...

Binary stars

About half of stars are in binary systems, which can help constrain stellar parameters or complexify the relevant physics through tides, mass transfer or even mergers. I wield this double-edged sword by modelling eclipsing binaries, benefitting from accurate parameters, and by applying accurate tidal prescriptions in evolution and stellar population codes.

But the added complexities of tidal interactions led me to build grids of models and compute tide coefficients and timescales to improve the evolution in the binary_c stellar population code.

Stellar clusters

Through the study of tides, I have shown that the circularization process is inefficient along the main-sequence evolution: using circularization to derive a proper cluster age is thus a questionable, albeit widespread, approach. Synchronization resulting from the competition of tides with wind and magnetic braking seems to be a better age proxy: simultaneous measurements of stellar rotation rates and orbital parameters in binaries would provide a more accurate way of deriving cluster ages.

With accurate models of pulsating stars we derive ages, that can be combined to derive a cluster age. I contributed to a systematic study of δ Scuti stars in some open clusters. Even when using 1D models, we found ages compatible with the literature for three clusters, along with the possibility for more than one population in Praesepe, demonstrating the efficiency of this technique that we now aim to apply to faster rotators and more clusters.

Recent publications

Mirouh G. M., Hendriks D. D., Dykes S., Moe M. & Izzard R. G., 2023 "Detailed equilibrium and dynamical tides: impact on circularization and synchronization in open clusters", MNRAS, 524, 3978.
Pamos Ortega D., Mirouh G. M., García Hernández A., Suárez J. C. & Barceló Forteza S., 2023 "Dating young open clusters using δ Scuti stars. Results for Trumpler 10 and Praesepe", A&A, 675, A167.
Rieutord M., Petit P., Reese D. R., Böhm T., López Ariste A., Mirouh G. M. & Domiciano de Souza A., 2023 "Spectroscopic detection of Altair's non-radial pulsations", A&A, 669, A99.
Gessey-Jones T., Sartorio N. S., Fialkov A., Mirouh G. M. et al., 2022 "Impact of the primordial stellar initial mass function on the 21-cm signal", MNRAS, 516, 841.
Mirouh G. M., 2022 "Forward modelling and the quest for mode identification in rapidly rotating stars", FrASS, 9, 2296.

My complete publication record can be found here or on ADS.

Outreach and teaching

In every institution where I worked, I taught at all levels (Bachelor, Master and Doctorate) for a total of 220 hours in French, Italian and English. This experience allowed me to create lectures from scratch, design reading lists, grade exams, and take part to evaluation committees. I thus received the habilitation to teach in French universities in 2017 (renewed in 2022).

I have also led outreach projects in France, Italy, the UK and Iran. Notably, I received funding for two outreach projects: “The Sensory Universe” and “The music of stars”. The former allows the general public, children, and visually impaired audiences to apprehend the Universe using their other senses, relying on 3D printings of Galaxies, sonification of stellar winds and interstellar medium chemistry. The latter relates stellar oscillations with classical music through music theory and a dedicated composition. I presented this talk to various local astronomical societies, at the Winchester planetarium (UK), and as an invited talk in Constantine (Algeria). Before those I organized a science conference for elementary school pupils (Toulouse, France) and visited schools to give astronomy talks (in Italy, France, and Benin).

I am always on the lookout for teaching and outreach opportunities, in French, English, Italian (and soon, Spanish), so do not hesitate to get in touch !