Petr Kurfürst


Petr Kurfürst

Petr is an astrophysicist, a researcher at Masaryk University in Brno and the member of the High-Energy Astrophysics research group. He is mainly interested in the physics of interactions between a wide range of objects, namely between stellar winds or circumstellar disks and interstellar environment, between expanding envelopes of supernovae and a previously formed dense circumstellar matter, and between galactic jets and nearby orbiting stars.

He has also a great interest in computational methods and numerical modeling. During his PhD studies and after them, he successfully developed a set of multidimensional astrophysical codes for studying physics of stellar viscous decretion disks and slow winds and also for high-Mach interactions of fast stellar winds or supernovae expansions with various forms and morphologies of surrounding interstellar medium.

Petr now continues in performing high-resolution simulations and studying in detail the long-term behavior of ablation of outer layers of red giant stars near the Galactig center by the supermassive black hole jet. He also works on multidimensional numerical modeling of circumstellar corotating magnetospheres of hot stars and their effects on various types of outflowing matter.

EDUCATION:
 
 
11/2015: PhD in Astrophysics “Models of Hot Star Decretion Disks” at the Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Faculty of Science at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; PhD advisor: Prof. J. Krtička
 
06/2010: MSc in Astrophysics “Astrophysics of Supernovae” at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Advisor: Dr. F. Hroch
 
06/2008: BSc in Astrophysics “CCD Photometry of Open Cluster NGC 2168” at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Advisor: Dr. J. Janík
 
 

POSITIONS:
 
 
2019-2020 Researcher in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
 
2018 Research associate in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
 
2010- Researcher in the Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Selected Publications

Evolution of quasi-periodic eruptions in the post-tidal disruption event accretion disk perturbed by an orbiting star (DOI).
Mondek, M., Zajaček, M., Best, H., Jankovič, T., Karas, V., and Kurfürst, P., A&A, vol. 709, A147, 2026.

Compact stellar systems hosting an intermediate-mass black hole: Magnetohydrodynamic study of inflow-outflow dynamics (DOI).
Labaj, M., Ressler, S. M., Zajaček, M., Plšek, T., Ripperda, B., and Peißker, F., A&A, vol. 702, A233, 2025.

High-cadence observations of galactic nuclei by the future two-band UV-photometry mission QUVIK (adsabs).
Zajaček, M., Werner, N., Best, H., L'Heureux, J. E., Řípa, J., Viskotová, M., Mondek, M., Münz, F., Štofanová, L., Kurfürst, P., Labaj, M., Garland, I. L., Tohuvavohu, A., Karas, V., and Suková, P., Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, vol. 11, 042222, 2025.

Science with a Small Two-Band UV-Photometry Mission I: Mission Description and Follow-up Observations of Stellar Transients (DOI).
Werner, N., Řípa, J., Thöne, C., Münz, F., Kurfürst, P., Jelínek, M., Hroch, F., Benáček, J., Topinka, M., Lukes-Gerakopoulos, G., Zajaček, M., Labaj, M., and collaborators, Space Science Reviews, vol. 220, 2024.

Science with a Small Two-Band UV-Photometry Mission III: Active Galactic Nuclei and Nuclear Transients (DOI).
Zajaček, M., Czerny, B., Jaiswal, V. K., Štolc, M., Karas, V., Pandey, A., Pasham, D. R., Śniegowska, M., Witzany, V., Suková, P., Münz, F., Werner, N., Řípa, J., Merc, J., Labaj, M., and Kurfürst, P., Space Science Reviews, vol. 220, 2024.


For a complete list of publications see here.