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Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy
Temporal And Spectral Analysis Of 1es 2344+514 In Two Flaring States Observed By Veritas, Connor Poggemann
Temporal And Spectral Analysis Of 1es 2344+514 In Two Flaring States Observed By Veritas, Connor Poggemann
Physics
VERITAS observed the bright blazar 1ES 2344+514 during two flaring periods, one from Dec. 17 to Dec. 18, 2015 (MJD 57373-57374) with a peak flux of ~60% of the Crab and another from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3, 2021 (MJD 59546-59551) with a peak flux of ~20% of the Crab. This blazar, located at a redshift of z = 0.044, is classified as an extreme high-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae object (HBL). It is known to be variable, including several previous day-scale flares: Whipple on Dec. 20, 1995, VERITAS on Dec. 7, 2007, and MAGIC on Aug. 11, 2016. The VERITAS near-nightly …
Improving Inferences About Exoplanet Habitability, Risinie D. Perera, Kevin H. Knuth
Improving Inferences About Exoplanet Habitability, Risinie D. Perera, Kevin H. Knuth
Physics Faculty Scholarship
Assessing the habitability of exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) is of great importance in deciding which planets warrant further careful study. Planets in the habitable zones of stars like our Sun are sufficiently far away from the star so that the light rays from the star can be assumed to be parallel, leading to straightforward analytic models for stellar illumination of the planet’s surface. However, for planets in the close-in habitable zones of dim red dwarf stars, such as the potentially habitable planet orbiting our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, the analytic illumination models based on the parallel ray approximation …
An Introduction To The Veritas Observatory, Alexander Biddle, Ian Kuhl, Jingze (Justin) Zhou, Avery Archer
An Introduction To The Veritas Observatory, Alexander Biddle, Ian Kuhl, Jingze (Justin) Zhou, Avery Archer
Annual Student Research Poster Session
Located at the base of Mount Hopkins, Arizona, at an elevation of approximately 4200 feet, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) is a ground-based gamma ray observatory containing four Cherenkov telescopes designed to detect very high energy gamma rays with energies ranging from 100GeV to 10TeV using the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique. In April 2007, VERITAS began successful operations with all four telescopes. As of today, over 15 years of data has been taken by the VERITAS array, stored in an archive of data, and used for a wide variety of research, publications, PhD theses, and conventions …
Analysis Of The Crab Nebula And Pulsar, Alexander Biddle, Ian Kuhl, Jingze (Justin) Zhou, Avery Archer
Analysis Of The Crab Nebula And Pulsar, Alexander Biddle, Ian Kuhl, Jingze (Justin) Zhou, Avery Archer
Annual Student Research Poster Session
Although the Crab Nebula is well understood, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) still regularly observes the Crab's highest energy emissions. These emissions are used to calibrate the telescopes, further, document the system, and investigate the validity of physical models. Our research this summer is geared to analyze data from 2018-2022 to add to an ongoing research project investigating the long term variability of the Crab Nebula’s emission.
Sub-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernovae Scenarios With Increased Pathways For Neutronization, Fernando Hernan Rivas
Sub-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernovae Scenarios With Increased Pathways For Neutronization, Fernando Hernan Rivas
Doctoral Dissertations
Type Ia supernovae are thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs (WD), electron-degenerate cores of old intermediate mass stars(under 8$M_{\odot}$). Reaching energies of $10^{51}$\si{\erg}, they outshine whole galaxies as they synthesize and distribute most of the iron group elements (IGE; V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) into the interstellar medium, thus being one of the main agents in cosmic chemical evolution. Also, given their notably homogeneous lightcurves, they form the last step in the cosmic distance ladder outdistancing Cepheid variables by orders of magnitude. Though calibration of said lightcurves is dependent on a high number of confirmed events, the limits of statistical …
Identifying And Analyzing Multi-Star Systems Among Tess Planetary Candidates Using Gaia, Katie E. Bailey
Identifying And Analyzing Multi-Star Systems Among Tess Planetary Candidates Using Gaia, Katie E. Bailey
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Exoplanets represent a young, rapidly advancing subfield of astrophysics where much is still unknown. It is therefore important to analyze trends among their parameters to learn more about these systems. More complexity is added to these systems with the presence of additional stellar companions. To study these complex systems, one can employ programming languages such as Python to parse databases such as those constructed by TESS and Gaia to bridge the gap between exoplanets and stellar companions. Data can then be analyzed for trends in these multi-star exoplanet systems and in juxtaposition to their single-star counterparts. This research was able …
The Search For Heavily Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei In The Local Universe, Ross Silver
The Search For Heavily Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei In The Local Universe, Ross Silver
All Dissertations
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the center of galaxies that accrete surrounding gas and emit across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. They are the most energetic persistent emitters in the Universe, capable of outshining their host galaxies despite their emission originating from a region smaller than our Solar System. AGN were some of the first sources discovered that helped teach us that there were galaxies outside of our own, and they proved the existence of black holes. Moreover, AGN can give us valuable insights into other branches of astrophysics. For example, they can be used to …
The Loneliest Galaxies In The Universe: A Gama And Galaxy Zoo Study On Void Galaxy Morphology., Lori E. Porter
The Loneliest Galaxies In The Universe: A Gama And Galaxy Zoo Study On Void Galaxy Morphology., Lori E. Porter
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
The large-scale structure (LSS) of the Universe is comprised of galaxy filaments, tendrils, and voids. The majority of the Universe’s volume is taken up by these voids, which exist as underdense, but not empty, regions. The galaxies found inside voids are void galaxies and expected to be some of the most isolated objects in the Universe. However, their standard morphology remains poorly studied. This study, using the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) data and Galaxy Zoo survey, aims to remedy this. For completeness purposes, we use void galaxies identified by Alpaslan et al. (2014) with stellar masses (M*) of 10 …
Analysis Of A Controlled Approximation For Explicit Integrations Of Stiff Thermonuclear Networks, Nicholas Brey
Analysis Of A Controlled Approximation For Explicit Integrations Of Stiff Thermonuclear Networks, Nicholas Brey
Masters Theses
The current standard method to solve stiff coupled differential equations relies on implicit integration methods. Explicit methods are generally avoided due to the extremely small and limiting timesteps they allow when the equations are stiff. However, implicit methods are computationally expensive because of the complex calculations that need to be done at each time step. An explicit integration method can do these calculations quicker and, if allowed to take comparable timesteps to the implicit ones, would allow the entire calculation to be done faster. Previous work by Dr. Guidry, Dr. Endeve, Dr. Hix and Dr. Billings has shown that, in …
Exploring The Dependence Of Bulges In Spiral Galaxies On Their Environment, William Jackson Clark
Exploring The Dependence Of Bulges In Spiral Galaxies On Their Environment, William Jackson Clark
Physics Theses & Dissertations
Recent research has shown a relationship between spiral galaxy satellite populations and the size of spiral bulges. The modern cosmological model of our universe (ΛCDM), does not predict this. Instead, ΛCMD predicts that only the total dynamical mass of a host galaxy should be correlated with satellite populations. We investigate this relationship in regimes other than satellites. In this study we compare the bulge to total mass ratios of spiral galaxies to the number of nearby galaxies within “n” Mpc. We use four papers from literature that calculate bulge to total mass ratios of 189 spiral galaxies using …
Optimal Method For Reconstructing Polychromatic Maps From Broadband Observations With An Aysmmetric Antenna Pattern, Brianna Cantrall, Emory F. Bunn, Solomon Quinn
Optimal Method For Reconstructing Polychromatic Maps From Broadband Observations With An Aysmmetric Antenna Pattern, Brianna Cantrall, Emory F. Bunn, Solomon Quinn
Honors Theses
Broadband time-ordered data obtained from telescopes with a wavelength-dependent, asymmetric beam pattern can be used to extract maps at multiple wavelengths from a single scan. This technique is especially useful when collecting data on cosmic phenomena such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, as it provides the ability to separate the CMB signal from foreground contaminants. We develop a method to determine the optimal linear combinations of wavelengths (“colors”) that can be reconstructed for a given telescope design and the number of colors that are measurable with high signal-to-noise ratio. The optimal colors are found as eigenvectors of a …
Measurement Of Near-Threshold Proton Branching Ratios In 31s Important For Novae, Sudarsan Balakrishnan
Measurement Of Near-Threshold Proton Branching Ratios In 31s Important For Novae, Sudarsan Balakrishnan
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Classical novae are stellar explosions that contribute to the nucleosynthesis of isotopes on the proton-rich side of the valley of stability up to 40Ca. In ONe novae, the incompletely understood reaction rate of 30P(p,γ)31S is known to strongly influence the production rate of several stable isotopes such as 30Si, 31P, and 32,33,34S. A precise measurement of this reaction rate has several potential implications towards matching astrophysical observables to the physical composition of the nova site -- the observed elemental abundance ratios of O/S and S/Al have been suggested as useful `thermometers' to gauge …