Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Comparing Stellar Populations Of Galaxies Across The Hubble Sequence: Reduction Of Pisces Near-Infrared Images, Vaishali Parkash

Honors Theses

To better understand the properties of high redshift galaxies and improve models of galaxy formation, we are investigating color radial profiles to study the stellar age, dust and metallicity distribution of galaxies of varying lumi-nosities and morphological types. Current data obtained in the optical and UV have shown that early-type galaxies have a flat color profile, or are bluer at larger radii, while late-type spirals are redder with increasing radius. These trends are believed to be linked with stellar population ages or dust. To break the age-dust degeneracy as well as to avoid the metallicity dependence, we have obtained near-infrared …

The Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relationship For S4g Galaxies And The "Condensed" Baryon Fraction Of Galaxies., Dennis Zaritsky, Helene M. Courtois, Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos, Jenny Sorce, S. Erroz-Ferrer, S. Comeron, D. A. Gadotti, A. Gil De Paz, J. L. Hinz, E. Laurikainen, T. Kim, J. Laine, K. Menendez-Delmestre, T. Mizusawa, M. W. Regan, H. Salo, M. Seibert, K. Sheth, E. Athanassoula, A. Bosma, M. Cisternas, Luis C. Ho, Benne W. Holwerda

Faculty Scholarship

We combine data from the Spitzer Survey for Stellar Structure in Galaxies, a recently calibrated empirical stellar mass estimator from Eskew et al., and an extensive database of H i spectral line profiles to examine the baryonic Tully–Fisher (BTF) relation. We find (1) that the BTF has lower scatter than the classic Tully–Fisher (TF) relation and is better described as a linear relationship, confirming similar previous results, (2) that the inclusion of a radial scale in the BTF decreases the scatter but only modestly, as seen previously for the TF relation, and (3) that the slope of the BTF, which …

Reconstructing The Stellar Mass Distributions Of Galaxies Using S4g Irac 3.6 And 4.5 Μm Images. Ii. The Conversion From Light To Mass., Sharon Meidt, Eva Schinnerer, Glenn Van De Ven, Dennis Zaritsky, Reynier Peletier, Johan H. Knapen, Kartik Sheth, Michael Regan, Miguel Querejeta, Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos, Taehyun Kim, Joannah Hinz, Armando Gil De Paz, E. Athanassoula, Albert Bosma, Ronald J. Buta, Mauricio Cisternas, Luis C. Ho, Benne W. Holwerda, Ramin Skibba, E. Laurikainen, H. Salo, D. A. Gadotti, Jarkko Laine, Santiago Erroz-Ferrer, Sebastien Comeron, K. Menendez-Delmestre, M. Seibert, T. Mizusawa

Faculty Scholarship

We present a new approach for estimating the 3.6μm stellar mass-to-light (M/L) ratio ϒ3.6 in terms of the [3.6]–[4.5] colors of old stellar populations. Our approach avoids several of the largest sources of uncertainty in existing techniques using population synthesis models. By focusing on mid-IR wavelengths, we gain a virtually dust extinction-free tracer of the old stars, avoiding the need to adopt a dust model to correctly interpret optical or optical/near-IR colors normally leveraged to assign the mass-to-light ratio ϒ. By calibrating a new relation between near-IR and mid-IR colors of giant stars observed in GLIMPSE we also avoid the …

The Ninja-2 Project: Detecting And Characterizing Gravitational Waveforms Modelled Using Numerical Binary Black Hole Simulations, J. Aasi, B. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, T. Accadia, Mario C. Diaz, Malik Rakhmanov, Joseph D. Romano, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Teviet Creighton, Robert Stone

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave (GW) astrophysics communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the ability to detect GWs emitted from merging binary black holes (BBH) and recover their parameters with next-generation GW observatories. We report here on the results of the second NINJA project, NINJA-2, which employs 60 complete BBH hybrid waveforms consisting of a numerical portion modelling the late inspiral, merger, and ringdown stitched to a post-Newtonian portion modelling the early inspiral. In a ‘blind injection challenge’ similar to that conducted in recent Laser …

Application Of An Isogeometric Boundary Element Method To The Calculation Of Acoustic Radiation Modes And Their Efficiencies, Candice Marie Humpherys

Theses and Dissertations

In contrast to the structural modes, which describe the physical motion of vibrating structures, acoustic radiation modes describe the radiated sound power. Radiation modes are beneficial in active noise control because reducing an efficiently radiating radiation mode guarantees the reduction of radiated sound power. Much work has been done to calculate the radiation modes for simple geometries, where analytic solutions are available. In this work, isogeometric analysis (IGA) is used to provide a tool capable of analyzing the radiation modes of arbitrarily complex geometries. IGA offers increased accuracy and efficiency by using basis functions generated from Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) …

Veritas Very High Energy Observations Of The Distant Blazar 1es 0647+250, Margaret R. Molter, Jon Dumm, Lucy Fortson

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We perform an analysis of the long- and short-term variability of the very high energy (VHE; above 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission from the newly-detected distant blazar 1ES 0647+250. Both new and archival data from the VERITAS telescope were examined, and no strong evidence for integral flux variability on any timescale was found. This lack of variability is consistent with the application of current ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) models, which can produce secondary gamma-ray emission along the line of sight from the blazar; it also allows averaging over multiyear timescales without bias, aiding in the construction of spectral energy distribution …

Finesse Measurement In Fabry-Perot Interferometers, Michael C. Darrow

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

STAR (Space-time Asymmetry Research) is an experimental satellite that will measure anisotropy in the speed of light to unprecedented resolutions using two orthogonal Fabry- Perot interferometers. In order to achieve the desired level of precision, the optical cavities must have finesse values greater than 100,000. Using two test interferometers, I tested and optimized two different experimental methods for measurement of finesse: full-width half max measurement and cavity ring-down spectroscopy. Although each technique proved valid in its own right, my work suggests that cavity ring-down spectroscopy may be more applicable for the needs of STAR.

Faraday Rotation Effects For Diagnosing Magnetism In Bubble Environments., Richard Ignace

ETSU Faculty Works

Faraday rotation is a process by which the position angle (PA) of background linearly polarized light is rotated when passing through an ionized and magnetized medium. The effect is sensitive to the line-of-sight magnetic field in conjunction with the electron density. This contribution highlights diagnostic possibilities of inferring the magnetic field (or absence thereof) in and around wind-blown bubbles from the Faraday effect. Three cases are described as illustrations: a stellar toroidal magnetic field, a shocked interstellar magnetic field, and an interstellar magnetic field within an ionized bubble.

Three Moving Groups Detected In The Lamost Dr1 Archive, Zhao J. K., Zhao G., Y. Q. Chen, T. D. Oswalt, K. F. Tan, Y. Zhang

Publications

We analyze the kinematics of thick disk and halo stars observed by the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope. We have constructed a sample of 7993 F, G, and K nearby main-sequence stars (d < 2 kpc) with estimates of position (x, y, z) and space velocity (U, V, W) based on color and proper motion from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR9 catalog. Three “phase-space overdensities” are identified in (V,√U2 + 2V 2) with significance levels of σ > 3. Two of them (the Hyades–Pleiades stream …

Faraday Rotation Effects For Diagnosing Magnetism In Bubble Environments., Richard Ignace

Richard Ignace

Faraday rotation is a process by which the position angle (PA) of background linearly polarized light is rotated when passing through an ionized and magnetized medium. The effect is sensitive to the line-of-sight magnetic field in conjunction with the electron density. This contribution highlights diagnostic possibilities of inferring the magnetic field (or absence thereof) in and around wind-blown bubbles from the Faraday effect. Three cases are described as illustrations: a stellar toroidal magnetic field, a shocked interstellar magnetic field, and an interstellar magnetic field within an ionized bubble.

Monte Carlo Simulations Of Atmospheric Loss By Stellar Winds From Exoplanets, Daniel P. Violette

University Scholar Projects

Hot Jupiters are a class of extra-solar planets. Massive gas giants on the same size scale as Jupiter, they orbit their host stars closely. This proximity results in large stellar winds capable of stripping away a planet’s atmosphere. Developing a more complete understanding of atmospheric mass loss and evolution in planetary bodies is critical, and Hot Jupiter systems are accessible analogues.

This project will seek to create a computational model capable of estimating mass loss rates due to stellar winds. A Monte Carlo method is utilized to take an ensemble of single, high-energy energetic neutral particles, produced by kilo-electronvolt stellar …

Monte Carlo Simulations Of Atmospheric Loss By Stellar Winds From Exoplanets, Daniel Violette

Honors Scholar Theses

Hot Jupiters are a class of extra-solar planets. Massive gas giants on the same size scale as Jupiter, they orbit their host stars closely. This proximity results in large stellar winds capable of stripping away a planet’s atmosphere. Developing a more complete understanding of atmospheric mass loss and evolution in planetary bodies is critical, and Hot Jupiter systems are accessible analogues.

This project will seek to create a computational model capable of estimating mass loss rates due to stellar winds. A Monte Carlo method is utilized to take an ensemble of single, high-energy energetic neutral particles, produced by kilo-electronvolt stellar …

Subaru Spectroscopy And Spectral Modeling Of Cygnus A, Matthew J. Merlo, Erik S. Perlman, Robert Nikutta, Christopher Packham, Moshe Elitzur, Masatoshi Imanishi, N. A. Levenson, James T. Radomski, Itziar Aretxaga

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present high angular resolution (~0.''5) MIR spectra of the powerful radio galaxy, Cygnus A (Cyg A), obtained with the Subaru telescope. The overall shape of the spectra agree with previous high angular resolution MIR observations, as well as previous Spitzer spectra. Our spectra, both on and off nucleus, show a deep silicate absorption feature. The absorption feature can be modeled with a blackbody obscured by cold dust or a clumpy torus. The deep silicate feature is best fit by a simple model of a screened blackbody, suggesting that foreground absorption plays a significant, if not dominant, role in shaping …

Search For Gravitational Wave Ringdowns From Perturbed Intermediate Mass Black Holes In Ligo-Virgo Data From 2005-2010, Tiffany Summerscales, The Ligo Scientific Collaboration And The Virgo Collaboration

Faculty Publications

We report results from a search for gravitational waves produced by perturbed intermediate mass black holes (IMBH) in data collected by LIGO and Virgo between 2005 and 2010. The search was sensitive to astrophysical sources that produced damped sinusoid gravitational wave signals, also known as ringdowns, with frequency 50≤f0/Hz≤2000 and decay timescale 0.0001≲τ/s≲0.1 characteristic of those produced in mergers of IMBH pairs. No significant gravitational wave candidate was detected. We report upper limits on the astrophysical coalescence rates of IMBHs with total binary mass 50≤M/M⊙≤450 and component mass ratios of either 1:1 or 4:1. For systems with total mass 100≤M/M⊙≤150, …

Dominican Big History Scholars Student-Led Focus Groups, Lizette Cabrera, Cassandra Cannon, Talia Gonzalez, Carly Holboke, Kylie Walsh, Tegist Worku, Emily Beach, Mackenzie Hagstrom, Jennifer Lucko, J. Dan May, Mojgan Behmand

Big History | Scholar Program

No abstract provided.

Absolute Properties Of The Eclipsing Binary Star Ap Andromedae, Claud H. Sandberg Lacy, Guillermo Torres, Francis C. Fekel, Matthew W. Muterspaugh

Information Systems and Engineering Management Research Publications

AP And is a well-detached F5 eclipsing binary star for which only a very limited amount of information was available before this publication. We have obtained very extensive measurements of the light curve (19,097 differential V magnitude observations) and a radial velocity curve (83 spectroscopic observations) which allow us to fit orbits and determine the absolute properties of the components very accurately: masses of 1.277 ± 0.004 and 1.251 ± 0.004 M☉, radii of 1.233 ± 0.006 and 1.1953 ± 0.005 R☉, and temperatures of 6565 ± 150 K and 6495 ± 150 K. The distance to the system is …

Continuum Polarization In Circumstellar Media, Richard Ignace

ETSU Faculty Works

See http://www.asu.cas.cz/~wg2prague/

On The Observability Of Optically Thin Coronal Hyperfine Structure Lines, Marios Chatzikos, Gary J. Ferland, R. J. R. Williams, A. C. Fabian

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present CLOUDY calculations for the intensity of coronal hyperfine lines in various environments. We model indirect collisional and radiative transitions, and quantify the collisionally excited line emissivity in the density-temperature phase space. As an observational aid, we also express the emissivity in units of that in the 0.4-0.7 keV band. For most hyperfine lines, knowledge of the X-ray surface brightness and the plasma temperature is sufficient for rough estimates. We find that the radiation fields of both Perseus A and Virgo A can enhance the populations of highly ionized species within 1 kpc. They can also enhance line emissivity …

A Four-Planet System Orbiting The K0v Star Hd 141399, Steve Vogt, R. Paul Butler, Eugenio J. Rivera, Robert I. Kibrick, Jennifer Burt, Russell Hanson, Stefano Meschiari, Gregory W. Henry, Gregory Laughlin

Information Systems and Engineering Management Research Publications

We present precision radial velocity (RV) data sets from Keck-HIRES and from Lick Observatory's new Automated Planet Finder Telescope and Levy Spectrometer on Mt. Hamilton that reveal a multiple-planet system orbiting the nearby, slightly evolved, K-type star HD 141399. Our 91 observations over 10.5 yr suggest the presence of four planets with orbital periods of 94.35, 202.08, 1070.35, and 3717.35 days and minimum masses of 0.46, 1.36, 1.22, and 0.69 MJ, respectively. The orbital eccentricities of the three inner planets are small, and the phase curves are well sampled. The inner two planets lie just outside the 2:1 resonance, suggesting …

Electronic Device Incorporating Memristor Made From Metallic Nanowire, Douglas R. Strachan, Stephen L. Johnson

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Patents

An electronic device includes a first electrode, a second electrode and a nanowire connected between the first and second electrodes to allow electric current flow. The nanowire is made from a conductive material exhibiting a variable resistance due to electromigration. The nanowire is repeatably switchable between two states. A voltage clamp operates through feedback control to maintain the voltage across the nanowire and prevent thermal runaway.