Douglas Owen GoughFRS (born 8 February 1941)[1] is a British astronomer, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Astrophysics in the University of Cambridge, and Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow.[2]
Gough began his career working mainly on the problem of convection in stars and how it interacts with stellar pulsations. His best known works from this period include the a criterion for the inhibition of convection by magnetic fields in stars,[5] the application of the anelastic approximation to stellar atmospheres,[6] and a model of convection[7] that is the foundation of methods still used today to model the interaction of convection and pulsations in classical variable stars[8] and in the Sun.[9] In 1976, he and his PhD student Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard predicted that the global oscillation frequencies of the Sun could be used to infer its deep structure.[10] This is regarded as the beginning of what became known as helioseismology and, by extension, asteroseismology[11] of solar-like oscillators; Gough and Christensen-Dalsgaard are regarded as the "fathers" of the field. Gough and his students subsequently published extensively on the internal structure of the Sun and the calculation thereof, including determining features like the depth of the solar convection zone,[12] the Sun's interior rotation,[13] the protosolar helium abundance[14] and the main-sequence age.[15] He pioneered seismological investigation into the equation of state in the Sun and the helium abundance in stellar convection zones.[16][17]
^Gough, D. O.; Tayler, R. J. (1966), "The influence of a magnetic field on Schwarzschild's criterion for convective instability in an ideally conducting fluid", MNRAS, 133: 85–98, Bibcode:1966MNRAS.133...85G, doi:10.1093/mnras/133.1.85
^Gough, D. O. (1983), "The protosolar helium abundance", Primordial Helium, ed. P.A. Shaver, D. Kunth & K. Kjaer, European Southern Observatory: 117–136, Bibcode:1983prhe.work..117G
^"News: Society for the History of Astronomy; short-term contract information sought; more asteroids than ever; state of the union; Society medals for Jacobs Mestel and Gough; RAS grants announcement; spidermen; new faces for the Planetary Forum; an RAS Council member.", Astronomy and Geophysics, 43 (3): c4, 2002, Bibcode:2002A&G....43c...4., doi:10.1046/j.1468-4004.2002.43304.x
^"Awards: RAS Awards 2010; Prof. John Woodhouse; Prof. Douglas Gough; Prof. Bernard Roberts; Prof. James Hough; Dr Ineke De Moortel; Dr Barbara Ercolano", Astronomy and Geophysics, 51 (1): a37, 2010, Bibcode:2010A&G....51a..37., doi:10.1111/j.1468-4004.2010.51137.x