PTYS/LPL Faculty
Renu Malhotra
Regents' Professor, Louise Foucar Marshall Science Research Professor
Orbital dynamics, Theoretical astrophysics, Exoplanets; Planetary formation and evolution, Small bodies
Ph.D., 1988, Cornell University
Years with LPL: 2000 to present
Professor Malhotra's research spans orbital dynamics in the solar system and in exo-solar planetary systems. Current topics of research are: the orbital migration history of the giant planets, chaos and stability in the Kuiper belt, dynamics of near-Earth and main belt asteroids, the meteoritic bombardment history of the terrestrial planets, and architectures of exosolar planetary systems.
Current Grants
- Dynamical structure and evolution of the young solar system: NSF
- Planetary migration and Kuiper belt dynamics: NASA
- Distribution of planet masses, planet-planet separations and dynamical lifetimes of planetary systems: NASA
Current Spacecraft Involvement
Student Collaborations/Advising
- Saverio Cambioni (PTYS)
- Michael Hammer (ASTR)
- Hamish Hay (PTYS)
- Nathan Hendler (PTYS)
- Youngmin JeongAhn, (PTYS)
- Lei Lan (Tsinghua University)
- David Minton, (PTYS)Jessica Pillow (APPMATH)
- Amaya Moro-Martin, (Astronomy)
- Sarah Morrison (PTYS)
- Rachel Smullen (ASTR)
- Adam Sutherland (ASTR)
- Matthew Tiscareno, (PTYS)
- Kathryn Volk, ( PTYS)
- Xianyu Wang
Former Postdocs
- Kathryn Volk
- Joseph Hahn
- Stephen Kortenkamp
Complete publications list available from: NASA ADS Author search: Renu Malhotra
Refereed publications (NASA ADS): Calendar Year 2016 through July 2018
Malhotra, R., Lan, L., Volk, K., Wang, X. Neptune's 5:2 Resonance in the Kuiper Belt 2018AJ....156...55M
Trilling, D. E., Bellm, E. C., Malhotra, R. On the Detectability of Planet X with LSST 2018AJ....155..243T
Strom, R. G., Marchi, S., Malhotra, R. Ceres and the terrestrial planets impact cratering record 2018Icar..302..104S
Cambioni, S., Malhotra, R. The Mid-plane of the Main Asteroid Belt 2018AJ....155..143C
Su, K. Y. L., MacGregor, M. A., Booth, M., Wilner, D. J., Flaherty, K., Hughes, A. M., Phillips, N. M., Malhotra, R., Hales, A. S., Morrison, S., Ertel, S., Matthews, B. C., Dent, W. R. F., Casassus, S. ALMA 1.3 mm Map of the HD 95086 System 2017AJ....154..225S
Volk, K., Malhotra, R. Erratum: “The Curiously Warped Mean Plane of the Kuiper Belt” (2017, AJ, 154, 62) 2017AJ....154..212V
Volk, K., Malhotra, R. The Curiously Warped Mean Plane of the Kuiper Belt 2017AJ....154...62V
Wang, X., Malhotra, R. Mean Motion Resonances at High Eccentricities: The 2:1 and the 3:2 Interior Resonances 2017AJ....154...20W
JeongAhn, Y., Malhotra, R. Simplified Derivation of the Collision Probability of Two Objects in Independent Keplerian Orbits 2017AJ....153..235J
Malhotra, R., Wang, X. Eccentricity distribution in the main asteroid belt 2017MNRAS.465.4381M
Malhotra, R., Volk, K., Wang, X. Corralling a Distant Planet with Extreme Resonant Kuiper Belt Objects 2016ApJ...824L..22M
Yoshida, F., Ito, T., Dermawan, B., Nakamura, T., Takahashi, S., Ibrahimov, M. A., Malhotra, R., Ip, W.-H., Chen, W.-P., Sawabe, Y., Haji, M., Saito, R., Hirai, M. Lightcurves of the Karin family asteroids 2016Icar..269...15Y
| Available files | Size | Created |
|---|---|---|
 Malhotra_082018_CV_2.pdf | 165.71 KB | December 15, 2018 |
| Semester | Course | Day/Time | Location | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2021 | PTYS 595B-005 | |||
| Spring 2020 | PTYS 553-001 | |||
| Fall 2020 | PTYS 416-001 | |||
| Fall 2020 | PTYS 516-001 | |||
| Spring 2019 | PTYS 170B2-001 | 9:30-10:45a.m. | Kuiper 308 | |
| Spring 2018 | PTYS 553-001 | TTH 9:30 - 10:45a.m. | Kuiper 312 |
Syllabus Course Page |
| Fall 2018 | PTYS 516-001 | TTH 9:30-10:45a.m. | Kuiper 312 |
Syllabus Course Page |
| Fall 2018 | PTYS 416-001 | TTH 9:30-10:45a.m. | Kuiper 312 |
Syllabus Course Page |