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Physics Commons

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Astrophysics and Astronomy

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University

Series

2014

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physics

The Optical Luminosity Function Of Gamma-Ray Bursts Deduced From Rotse-Iii Observations, X. H. Cui, X. F. Wu, J. J. Wei, F. Yuan, W. K. Zheng, E. W. Liang, C. W. Akerlof, M. C. B. Ashley, H A. Flewelling, E. Göǧüş, T. Güver, Ü. Kızıloǧlu, T. A. Mckay, S. B. Pandey, E. S. Rykoff, W. Rujopakarn, B. E. Schaefer, J. C. Wheeler, Sarah A. Yost Nov 2014

The Optical Luminosity Function Of Gamma-Ray Bursts Deduced From Rotse-Iii Observations, X. H. Cui, X. F. Wu, J. J. Wei, F. Yuan, W. K. Zheng, E. W. Liang, C. W. Akerlof, M. C. B. Ashley, H A. Flewelling, E. Göǧüş, T. Güver, Ü. Kızıloǧlu, T. A. Mckay, S. B. Pandey, E. S. Rykoff, W. Rujopakarn, B. E. Schaefer, J. C. Wheeler, Sarah A. Yost

Physics Faculty Publications

We present the optical luminosity function (LF) of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) estimated from a uniform sample of 58 GRBs from observations with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment III (ROTSE-III). Our GRB sample is divided into two sub-samples: detected afterglows (18 GRBs) and those with upper limits (40 GRBs). We derive R-band fluxes for these two sub-samples 100 s after the onset of the burst. The optical LFs at 100 s are fitted by assuming that the co-moving GRB rate traces the star formation rate. While fitting the optical LFs using Monte Carlo simulations, we take into account the …


The Magnetopause: Bringing Space Physics Into A Junior Lab, Jim Crumley, Ari Palczewski,, Stephen Kaster Jul 2014

The Magnetopause: Bringing Space Physics Into A Junior Lab, Jim Crumley, Ari Palczewski,, Stephen Kaster

MapCores Faculty Publications

Undergraduate students often have minimal exposure to many subfields
of physics which are active areas of research. Space physics
is an area that is particularly difficult to expose students to since
it builds off of another area that most undergraduates see little of,
plasma physics. The magnetopause is convenient entry point
into space physics, since it can be modeled as a pressure balance, which is
a concept familiar from introductory physics. We use the Earth's
magnetopause as the basis for a lab for junior physics majors. In
the lab students analyze results from a NASA MHD simulation and
data from …