Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Simulations Of Electron Trajectories In An Intense Laser Focus For Photon Scattering Experiments, Grayson J. Tarbox

Theses and Dissertations

An experiment currently underway at BYU is designed to test whether the size of a free electron wave packet affects the character of scattered radiation. Using a semi-classical argument wherein the wave packet is treated as a diffuse charge distribution, one would expect strong suppression of radiation in the direction perpendicular to the propagating field as the wave packet grows in size to be comparable to the wavelength of the driving field. If one disallows the interaction of the wave packet with itself, as is the case when calculating the rate of emission using QED, then regardless of size, the …

Bayesian Investigation Of Isochrone Consistency Using The Old Open Cluster Ngc 188, Shane Hills, Ted Von Hippel, Stéphane Courteau, Aaron M. Geller

Publications

This paper provides a detailed comparison of the differences in parameters derived for a star cluster from its color– magnitude diagrams (CMDs) depending on the filters and models used. We examine the consistency and reliability of fitting three widely used stellar evolution models to 15 combinations of optical and near-IR photometry for the old open cluster NGC 188. The optical filter response curves match those of theoretical systems and are thus not the source of fit inconsistencies. NGC 188 is ideally suited to this study thanks to a wide variety of high-quality photometry and available proper motions and radial velocities …

Radio Emission Toward Regions Of Massive Star Formation In The Large Magellanic Cloud, Adam Johanson

Theses and Dissertations

Four regions of massive star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) were observed for water and methanol maser emission and radio continuum emission. A total of 42 radio detections were made including 27 new radio sources, four water masers, and eight compact HII regions. The lobes of a radio galaxy were resolved for the first time, and the host galaxy identified. Seven sources were associated with known massive young stellar objects (YSOs). A multi-wavelength analysis using both the infrared and radio spectrum was used to characterize the sources. Mid-infrared color-magnitude selection criteria for ultracompact HII (UCHII) regions in the …

Probing Stellar Accretion With Mid-Infrared Hydrogen Lines, Elisabetta Rigliaco, Ilaria Pascucci, Gaspard Duchene, Suzan Edwards, D. R. Ardila, C. Grady, Ignacio Mendigutía, Benjamín Montesinos, Gijs D. Mulders, Joan R. Najita, J. Carpenter, Elise Furlan, Uma Gorti, Rowin Meijerink, M. R. Meyer

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

In this paper we investigate the origin of the mid-infrared (IR) hydrogen recombination lines for a sample of 114 disks in different evolutionary stages (full, transitional, and debris disks) collected from the Spitzer archive. We focus on the two brighter H I lines observed in the Spitzer spectra, the H I (7-6) at 12.37 μm and the H I (9-7) at 11.32 μm. We detect the H I (7-6) line in 46 objects, and the H I (9-7) in 11. We compare these lines with the other most common gas line detected in Spitzer spectra, the [Ne II] at 12.81 …

Timing Of Five Millisecond Pulsars Discovered In The Palfa Survey, P. Scholz, V. M. Kaspi, A. G. Lyne, B. W. Stappers, S. Bogdanov, J. M. Cordes, F. Crawford, R. D. Ferdman, P. C.C. Freire, Fredrick Jenet

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present the discovery of five millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from the PALFA Galactic plane survey using Arecibo. Four of these (PSRs J0557+1551, J1850+0244, J1902+0300, and J1943+2210) are binary pulsars whose companions are likely white dwarfs, and one (PSR J1905+0453) is isolated. Phase-coherent timing solutions, ranging from 1 to 3 yr in length, and based on observations from the Jodrell Bank and Arecibo telescopes, provide precise determinations of spin, orbital, and astrometric parameters. All five pulsars have large dispersion measures (>100 pc cm-3, within the top 20% of all known Galactic field MSPs) and are faint (1.4 GHz flux density …

An Optical Spectroscopic Survey Of The Serpens Main Cluster: Evidence For Two Populations?, Kristen Erickson, Bruce Wilking, Michael Meyer, Jinyoung Kim, William Sherry, Matthew Freeman

Physics Faculty Works

We have completed an optical spectroscopic survey of a sample of candidate young stars in the Serpens Main star-forming region selected from deep B, V, and R band images. While infrared, X-ray, and optical surveys of the cloud have identified many young stellar objects (YSOs), these surveys have been biased toward particular stages of pre-main sequence evolution. We have obtained over 700 moderate resolution optical spectra that, when combined with published data, have led to the identification of 63 association members based on the presence of Hα in emission, lithium absorption, X-ray emission, a mid-infrared excess, and/or reflection nebulosity. Twelve …

Galaxy Zoo: Are Bars Responsible For The Feeding Of Active Galactic Nuclei At 0.2 < Z < 1.0?, Edmond Cheung, Jonathan R. Trump, E. Athanassoula, Steven P. Bamford, Eric F. Bell, A. Bosma, Carolin N. Cardamone, Kevin R. V. Casteels, S. M. Faber, Jerome J. Fang, Lucy F. Fortson, Dale D. Kocevski, David C. Koo, Seppo Laine, Chris Lintott, Karen L. Masters, Thomas Melvin, Robert C. Nichol, Kevin Schawinski, Brooke Simmons, Rebecca Smethurst, Kyle W. Willett

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present a new study investigating whether active galactic nuclei (AGN) beyond the local universe are preferentially fed via large-scale bars. Our investigation combines data from Chandra and Galaxy Zoo: Hubble (GZH) in the AEGIS (All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey), COSMOS (Cosmological Evolution Survey), and (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South) GOODS-S surveys to create samples of face-on, disc galaxies at 0.2 < z < 1.0. We use a novel method to robustly compare a sample of 120 AGN host galaxies, defined to have 10⁴² erg s⁻¹ < L_X < 10⁴⁴ erg s⁻¹, with inactive control galaxies matched in stellar mass, rest-frame colour, size, Sérsic index, and redshift. Using the GZH bar classifications of each sample, we demonstrate that …

Deconstructing The Galaxy Stellar Mass Function With Ukidss And Candels: The Impact Of Colour, Structure And Environment, Alice Mortlock, Christopher J. Conselice, William G. Hartley, Ken Duncan, Caterina Lani, Jamie R. Owensworth, Omar Almaini, Arjen Van Der Wel, Kuang-Han Huang, Matthew L.N. Ashby, S. P. Willner, Adriano Fontana, Avishai Dekel, Anton M. Koekemoer, Harry C. Ferguson, Sandra M. Faber, Norman A. Grogin, Dale D. Kocevski

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We combine photometry from the Ultra Deep Survey (UDS), Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) UDS and CANDELS the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South (GOODS-S) surveys to construct the galaxy stellar mass function probing both the low- and high-mass end accurately in the redshift range 0.3 < z < 3. The advantages of using a homogeneous concatenation of these data sets include meaningful measures of environment in the UDS, due to its large area (0.88 deg²), and the high-resolution deep imaging in CANDELS (H₁₆₀ > 26.0), affording us robust measures of structural parameters. We construct stellar mass functions for the entire sample as parametrized by the Schechter function, and find that there is a decline in the values of ϕ and of α with …

Detection Of A Distinct Metal-Poor Stellar Halo In The Early-Type Galaxy Ngc 3115*, Mark Peacock, Jay Strader, Aaron Romanowsky, Jean Brodie

Faculty Publications

We present the resolved stellar populations in the inner and outer halo of the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 3115. Using deep Hubble Space Telescope observations, we analyze stars 2 mag fainter than the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). We study three fields along the minor axis of this galaxy, 19, 37, and 54 kpc from its center—corresponding to 7, 14, and 21 effective radii (re ). Even at these large galactocentric distances, all of the fields are dominated by a relatively enriched population, with the main peak in the metallicity distribution decreasing with radius from [Z/H] ~ –0.5 …

Cosmic Background Radiation, Sree Ram Valluri, B G. Sidharth

Physics and Astronomy Publications

It is shown that a collection of photons with nearly the same frequency exhibits a “condensation” type of phenomenon corresponding to a peak intensity. The observed cosmic background radiation can be explained from this standpoint.We have obtained analogous results by extremization of the occupation number for photons with the use of the Lambert W function. Some of the interesting applications of this function are briefly discussed in the context of graphene which exhibits an interesting two dimensional structure with several characteristic properties and diverse practical applications.

Dual-Spacecraft Reconstruction Of A Three-Dimensional Magnetic Flux Rope At The Earth's Magnetopause, H. Hasegawa, B. U. Ö. Sonnerup, S. Eriksson, T. K. M. Nakamura

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present the first results of a data analysis method, developed by Sonnerup and Hasegawa (2011), for reconstructing three-dimensional (3-D), magnetohydrostatic structures from data taken as two closely spaced satellites traverse the structures. The method is applied to a magnetic flux transfer event (FTE), which was encountered on 27 June 2007 by at least three (TH-C, TH-D, and TH-E) of the five THEMIS probes near the subsolar magnetopause. The FTE was sandwiched between two oppositely directed reconnection jets under a southward interplanetary magnetic field condition, consistent with its generation by multiple X-line reconnection. The recovered 3-D field indicates that a …

Van Allen Probes Observations Linking Radiation Belt Electrons To Chorus Waves During 2014 Multiple Storms, Si Liu, Fuliang Xiao, Chang Yang, Yihua He, Qinghua Zhou, C A. Kletzing, W. S. Kurth, G. B. Hospodarsky, Harlan E. Spence, Geoffrey Reeves, H. O. Funsten, J. B. Blake, D. N. Baker, J. R. Wygant

Physics & Astronomy

Abstract

During 18 February to 2 March 2014, the Van Allen Probes encountered multiple geomagnetic storms and simultaneously observed intensified chorus and hiss waves. During this period, there were substantial enhancements in fluxes of energetic (53.8–108.3 keV) and relativistic (2–3.6 MeV) electrons. Chorus waves were excited at locations L = 4–6.2 after the fluxes of energetic were greatly enhanced, with a lower frequency band and wave amplitudes ∼20–100 pT. Strong hiss waves occurred primarily in the main phases or below the location L = 4 in the recovery phases. Relativistic electron fluxes decreased in the main phases due to the …

Dielectric Breakdown Weathering Of The Moon's Polar Regolith, Andrew P. Jordan, T. J. Stubbs, Jody K. Wilson, Nathan A. Schwadron, Harlan E. Spence

Physics & Astronomy

Abstract

Galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles (SEPs) can charge the Moon's subsurface, a process expected to be particularly important in the polar regions. Experiments have shown that sufficient fluences (i.e., time-integrated fluxes) of energetic charged particles can cause dielectric breakdown, in which the electric field rapidly vaporizes small, filamentary channels within a dielectric. Lunar regolith has both the characteristics and, in some polar locations, the environment needed to make breakdown likely. We combine the Jet Propulsion Laboratory proton fluence model with temperature measurements from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's (LRO's) Diviner instrument and related temperature modeling to estimate how …

Formation Of The Oxygen Torus In The Inner Magnetosphere: Van Allen Probes Observations, M. Nose, S. Oimatsu, K. Keika, C. A. Kletzing, W. S. Kurth, S. De Pascuale, Charles W. Smith, R. J. Macdowall, S. Nakano, Geoffrey Reeves, Harlan E. Spence, Bradford Larsen

Physics & Astronomy

We study the formation process of an oxygen torus during the 12–15 November 2012 magnetic storm, using the magnetic field and plasma wave data obtained by Van Allen Probes. We estimate the local plasma mass density (ρ_L) and the local electron number density (n_eL) from the resonant frequencies of standing Alfvén waves and the upper hybrid resonance band. The average ion mass (M) can be calculated by M ∼ ρ_L/n_eL under the assumption of quasi-neutrality of plasma. During the storm recovery phase, both Probe A and …

Plasmatrough Exohiss Waves Observed By Van Allen Probes: Evidence For Leakage From Plasmasphere And Resonant Scattering Of Radiation Belt Electrons, Hui Zhu, Zhenpeng Su, Fuliang Xiao, Huinan Zheng, Yuming Wang, Chao Shen, Tao Xian, Shui Wang, C A. Kletzing, W. S. Kurth, G. B. Hospodarsky, Harlan E. Spence, Geoffrey Reeves, H. O. Funsten, J. B. Blake, D. N. Baker

Physics & Astronomy

Abstract

Exohiss waves are whistler mode hiss observed in the plasmatrough region. We present a case study of exohiss waves and the corresponding background plasma distributions observed by the Van Allen Probes in the dayside low-latitude region. The analysis of wave Poynting fluxes, suprathermal electron fluxes, and cold electron densities supports the scenario that exohiss leaks from the plasmasphere into the plasmatrough. Quasilinear calculations further reveal that exohiss can potentially cause the resonant scattering loss of radiation belt electrons ∼

Productivity, Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation, And Light Use Efficiency In Crops: Implications For Remote Sensing Of Crop Primary Production, Anatoly A. Gitelson, Yi Peng, Timothy J. Arkebauer, Andrew E. Suyker

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Vegetation productivity metrics such as gross primary production (GPP) at the canopy scale are greatly affected by the efficiency of using absorbed radiation for photosynthesis, or light use efficiency (LUE). Thus, close investigation of the relationships between canopy GPP and photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by vegetation is the basis for quantification of LUE. We used multiyear observations over irrigated and rainfed contrasting C3 (soybean) and C4 (maize) crops having different physiology, leaf structure, and canopy architecture to establish the relationships between canopy GPP and radiation absorbed by vegetation and quantify LUE. Although multiple LUE definitions are reported in the literature, …

Universality In Fast Quantum Quenches, Sumit R. Das, Damián A. Galante, Robert C. Myers

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We expand on the investigation of the universal scaling properties in the early time behaviour of fast but smooth quantum quenches in a general d-dimensional conformal field theory deformed by a relevant operator of dimension Δ with a time-dependent coupling. The quench consists of changing the coupling from an initial constant value λ ₁ by an amount of the order of δλ to some other final value λ ₂, over a time scale δt. In the fast quench limit where δt is smaller than all other length scales in the problem, δt ≪ λ ₁ ^{1/(Δ …}

An Ancient Extrasolar System With Five Sub-Earth-Size Planets, Tiago L. Campante, Darin Ragozzine

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

The chemical composition of stars hosting small exoplanets (with radii less than four Earth radii) appears to be more diverse than that of gas-giant hosts, which tend to be metal-rich. This implies that small, including Earth-size, planets may have readily formed at earlier epochs in the universe's history when metals were more scarce. We report Kepler spacecraft observations of Kepler-444, a metal-poor Sun-like star from the old population of the Galactic thick disk and the host to a compact system of five transiting planets with sizes between those of Mercury and Venus. We validate this system as a true five-planet …

Marshall-Positive Su(N) Quantum Spin Systems And Classical Loop Models: A Practical Strategy To Design Sign-Problem-Free Spin Hamiltonians, Ribku K. Kaul

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We consider bipartite SU(N) spin Hamiltonians with a fundamental representation on one sublattice and a conjugate to fundamental on the other sublattice. By mapping these antiferromagnets to certain classical loop models in one higher dimension, we provide a practical strategy to write down a large family of SU(N) symmetric spin Hamiltonians that satisfy Marshall's sign condition. This family includes all previously known sign-free SU(N) spin models in this representation and in addition provides a large set of new models that are Marshall positive and can hence be studied efficiently with quantum Monte Carlo methods. …

The Manga Integral Field Unit Fiber Feed System For Thesloan 2.5 M Telescope, N. Drory, N. Macdonald, M. A. Bershady, K. Bundy, J. Gunn, D. R. Law, M. Smith, R. Stoll, C. A. Tremonti, D. A. Wake, Renbin Yan, A. M. Weijmans, N. Byler, B. Cherinka, F. Cope, A. Eigenbrot, P. Harding, D. Holder, J. Huehnerhoff, K. Jaehnig, T. C. Jansen, M. Klaene, A. M. Paat, J. Percival, C. Sayres

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We describe the design, manufacture, and performance of bare-fiber integral field units (IFUs) for the SDSS-IV survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) on the the Sloan 2.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. MaNGA is a luminosity-selected integral-field spectroscopic survey of 10⁴ local galaxies covering 360–1030 nm at R ~ 2200. The IFUs have hexagonal dense packing of fibers with packing regularity of 3 μm (rms), and throughput of 96 ± 0.5% from 350 nm to 1 μm in the lab. Their sizes range from 19 to 127 fibers (3–7 hexagonal layers) using Polymicro …