Physics Commons^™

Characterizing Agn Influence On The Calculated Metallicities Of Adjacent Star-Forming Spaxels, Aidan Khelil

Honors Papers

In this thesis, I introduce a method to identify and characterize the effects of active galactic nuclei (AGN) on the spectra of nearby star-forming regions. I analyze spatially-resolved areas of galaxies called “spaxels” within Data Release 15 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with the goal of locating those which are physically close to AGN. I find those spaxels with calculated metallicities which lie adjacent to AGN-flagged spaxels and characterize their metallicity values relative to the spaxels which are not adjacent to AGN-flagged spaxels, using a total of 11 separate metallicity calibrations. I find that the current methods to …

Radiative Transfer Models Of The Galactic Center, Everett A. Schlawin

Honors Papers

This thesis discusses research being done to understand the inner parts of the Milky Way Galaxy. We already know that there are dense star clouds, a supermassive black hole, and a large bar structure, but much of the inner galaxy is shrouded in mystery. Dust absorption, for one thing, prevents us from seeing the galactic center directly with our eyes.

To help understand the elusive inner Milky Way, we examine radio telescope data taken in Antarctica by Oberlin College Professor Chris Martin. His gigahertz radio observations were already analyzed to help understand how gas funnels into the Milky Way's supermassive …