Benjamin Scully

I am a first-year direct entry PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics program at the University of Toronto. My research interests include high energy and high mass astrophysical phenomena. I am also interested in the study of dark sector physics and its implications for cosmology. I received my B.Sc. in Combined Honours Physics and Astronomy from the University of British Columbia in 2025.

Recent Work (selected)

Crab Pulsar giant pulses

Using radio data from the Green Bank Telescope of the Crab Pulsar to analyze the "giant pulses" it produces. Aiming to determine whether giant pulses are produced by magnetic reconnection driven relativistic blobs of plasma (Sep 2025 - Present)

Simulating dark matter observations

Investigated the Axion Quark Nugget macroscopic dark matter framework. Determined the feasibility of detection of dark matter emission in Euclid and James Webb space telescopes using hydrodynamic simulation. (Sep 2024 - Apr 2025)

Signal identification in LIGO detectors

Implemented machine learning and dimensional reduction methods to identify gaps in signal identification capabilities in LIGO detectors. (May 2023 - Aug 2023)

Aspherical supernovae emission

Simulated aspherical supernovae to identify conditions which might produce additional emission on top of a standard supernovae light curve. Found that circumstellar ejecta collision can may result in further light in these explosions. (May 2022 - Aug 2022)

Publications

First Author

Co-Author

A more in depth summary can be found in my CV here.