Physics Commons^™

Energy From Active Galactic Nuclei And The Effects On Host Spiral Galaxies, Amanda Schilling

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I have investigated the energy output of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in order to understand how these objects evolve and the impact they may have on host galaxies. First, I looked at a sample of 96 AGN at redshifts $z \sim 2, 3,$ and $4$ which have imaging and thus luminosity measurements in the $griz$ and $JHK$ observed wavebands. For these galaxies, I have co-epochal data across those bands which accounted for variability in AGN luminosity. I used the luminosity measurements in the five bands to construct spectral energy distributions (SED) in the emitted optical-UV bands for each AGN. I …

Molecular Tracers Of Star Formation Feedback In Nearby Galaxies, Mark Gorski

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The energy and momentum injected into the ISM from stars has a drastic effect on the star formation history of a galaxy. This is called feedback. It is responsible for the inefficient collapse of the ISM into stars. The ``Survey of Water and Ammonia in Nearby Galaxies" (SWAN) is a survey of molecular line tracers in four nearby galaxies. By using molecular tracers of feedback, we provide insights into the star forming ecosystem of the galaxies NGC 253, IC 342, NGC 6946, and NGC 2146. These galaxies were chosen to span an order of magnitude in star formation rate and …

Quantum Foundations With Astronomical Photons, Calvin Leung

HMC Senior Theses

Bell's inequalities impose an upper limit on correlations between measurements of two-photon states under the assumption that the photons play by a set of local rules rather than by quantum mechanics. Quantum theory and decades of experiments both violate this limit.

Recent theoretical work in quantum foundations has demonstrated that a local realist model can explain the non-local correlations observed in experimental tests of Bell's inequality if the underlying probability distribution of the local hidden variable depends on the choice of measurement basis, or ``setting choice''. By using setting choices determined by astrophysical events in the distant past, it is …