Péter István Mészáros (born 15 July 1943)[1] is a Hungarian-American theoretical astrophysicist,
best known for the Mészáros effect[2]
in cosmology and for his work on gamma-ray bursts.[3][4]
Mészáros is widely known in the astrophysical community for his papers on the relativistic fireball shock
model of gamma ray bursts and their afterglows,[3][4]
laying down the framework for the interplay between the jet dynamics and the external as
well as internal shocks which determine the observational aspects of these sources.
He is also known in the cosmological community for the Mészáros effect,[2]
or Mészáros equation, which quantifies the influence of dark matter in the evolution of
the initial perturbations leading to large scale structures in cosmology.
He was active in the study of the interstellar medium as well as the astrophysics of black holes,
and contributed broadly to the study of magnetized neutron stars, e.g.[6]
He served as the science-theory lead of the NASA Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory space mission.
His current interests include calculations of theoretical models of cosmic high energy cosmic ray
and neutrino sources, e.g.,[7][8]
as well as exploring various aspects of multimessenger astrophysics.