Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Hellings And Downs Correlation Of An Arbitrary Set Of Pulsars, Bruce Allen, Joseph D. Romano

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) detect gravitational waves (GWs) via the correlations they induce in the arrival times of pulses from different pulsars. We assume that the GWs are described by a Gaussian ensemble, which models the confusion noise produced by expected PTA sources. The mean correlation h2μu(γ) as a function of the angle γ between the directions to two pulsars was predicted by Hellings and Downs in 1983. The variance σ2tot(γ) in this correlation was recently calculated [B. Allen, Variance of the Hellings-Downs correlation, Phys. Rev. D 107, 043018 (2023)] for a single noise-free pulsar pair at angle γ, …

Anharmonicity And Deuteration In The Ir Absorption And Emission Spectra Of Phenylacetylene, Vincent J. Esposito, Pierro Ferrari, Wybren Jan Buma, Christiaan Boersma, Cameron J. Mackie, Alessandra Candian, Ryan C. Fortenberry, Alexander G. G. M. Tielens

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Anharmonic cascade emission simulations, herein evinced by full reproduction and deep insights into recent emission spectroscopy experiments of phenylacetylene, are integral to the future successful analysis of JWST observational spectra. Experimental infrared absorption experiments conducted in this study reveal a complex spectrum dominated by quantum effects that are uncovered by anharmonic computational analysis. From this work, it becomes clear that phenylacetylene exhibits strong resonance coupling between fundamental and two-quanta combination modes as well as giving indication for coupling with higher-order, three-quanta combination bands. This study benchmarks the development of advanced computational methods that will be extended to larger systems of …

On The Motion Of The Nodes Of The Moon And The Variation Of Its Inclination To The Ecliptic (An English Translation Of De Motu Nodorum Lunae Eiusque Inclinationis Ad Eclipticam Variatione), Patrick T. Headley

Euleriana

In this paper Euler attempts to explain some features of the motion of the Moon using Newton’s inverse-square law of gravity. He describes the evidence in favor of Newton’s theory but also the lack of progress in the study of lunar motion due to the difficulty of the three-body problem, arising here since both the Sun and the Earth have large effects on the Moon. He proceeds to investigate the line of intersection between the planes of the Earth's orbit and the Moon's orbit, as well as the angle between the two planes.

Aether Scalar Tensor Theory Confronted With Weak Lensing Data At Small Accelerations, Tobias Mistele, Stacy S. Mcgaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Context. The recently proposed aether scalar tensor (AeST) model reproduces both the successes of particle dark matter on cosmological scales and those of modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) on galactic scales. But the AeST model reproduces MOND only up to a certain maximum galactocentric radius. Since MOND is known to fit very well to observations at these scales, this raises the question of whether the AeST model comes into tension with data. Aims. We tested whether or not the AeST model is in conflict with observations using a recent analysis of data for weak gravitational lensing. Methods. We solved the equations …

Using 4most To Refine The Measurement Of Galaxy Properties: A Case Study Of Supernova Hosts, J Dumayne, I M. Hook, S C. Williams, G A. Lowes, D Head, A Fritz, O Graur, Benne Holwerda, A Humphrey, A Milligan, M Nicholl, B F. Roukema, P Wiseman

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The Rubin Observatory’s 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time will observe near to 20 billion galaxies. For each galaxy the properties can be inferred. Approximately 105 galaxies observed per year will contain Type Ia supernovae (SNe), allowing SN host-galaxy properties to be calculated on a large scale. Measuring the properties of SN host-galaxies serves two main purposes. The first is that there are known correlations between host-galaxy type and supernova type, which can be used to aid in the classification of SNe. Secondly, Type Ia SNe exhibit correlations between host-galaxy properties and the peak luminosities of the SNe, which …

Tests Of General Relativity Through Searches For Lorentz And Cpt Symmetry Breaking, Kellie Ault

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

An effective field theory framework, the Standard Model Extension (SME), provides an agnostic, systematic test of General Relativity (GR) and its founding spacetime symmetries, Lorentz and CPT symmetry. Violating these symmetries may provide clues toward unifying the physics of the General Relativity and the Standard Model of particle physics. Part of this work involves the merge of theory, data analysis and experiments with gravitational wave (GW) signals from LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) detectors. A modified dispersion relation derived from the SME of GWs is implemented into the LIGO Scientific Collaboration Algorithm Library Suite (LALSuite), where a joint Bayesian inference of the source …

Direct Measurement Of The 114cd(N, Gamma)115cd Cross Section In The 1 Ev To 300 Kev Energy Range, Kofi Tutu Addo Assumin-Gyimah

Theses and Dissertations

The large thermal cross section of cadmium makes it ideal for many practical applications where screening of thermal neutrons is desired. For example, in non-destructive assay techniques, or for astrophysical studies of the s-process. All such applications require precise knowledge of the neutron-capture cross section on cadmium. Although there are some data on neutron-capture cross sections particularly at thermal energies and at energies relevant for astrophysics, there is very little data at most other energies. Further, the evaluated cross sections from the ENDF and JENDL databases disagree at high energies. Therefore, there is a critical need for precise knowledge of …

On The Frequencies Of Circumbinary Discs In Protostellar Systems, D. Elsender, M. R. Bate, B. S. Lakeland, Eric L.N. Jensen, S. H. Lubow

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

We report the analysis of circumbinary (CB) discs formed in a radiation hydrodynamical simulation of star cluster formation. We consider both pure binary stars and pairs within triple and quadruple systems. The protostellar systems are all young (ages < 10⁵ yrs). We find that the systems that host a CB disc have a median separation of ≈11 au, and the median characteristic radius of the discs is ≈64 au. We find that 89 per cent of pure binaries with semimajor axes a < 1 au have a CB disc, and the occurrence rate of CB discs is bimodal with log-separation in pure binaries with a second peak at a ≈ 50 au. Systems with a > 100 au almost never have a CB disc. The median size of a CB disc is between ≈5 and 6 a depending on the order of the system, with higher order systems having larger discs relative to binary separation. We find the underlying distributions of mutual inclination between CB discs and binary orbits from …

Two Warm Neptunes Transiting Hip 9618 Revealed By Tess And Cheops, H. P. Osborn, G. Nowak, G. Hébrard, T. Masseron, J. Lillo-Box, E. Pallé, A. Bekkelien, H.-G. Florén, P. Guterman, A. E. Simon, V. Adibekyan, A. Bieryla, L. Borsato, A. Brandeker, D. R. Ciardi, A. Collier Cameron, K. A. Collins, J. A. Egger, D. Gandolfi, M. J. Hooton, D. W. Latham, M. Lendl, E. C. Matthews, A. Tuson, S. Ulmer-Moll, A. Vanderburg, T. G. Wilson, C. Ziegler, Y. Alibert, R. Alonso, G. Anglada, L. Arnold, J. Asquier, D. Barrado Y Navascues, W. Baumjohann, T. Beck, A. A. Belinski, W. Benz, F. Biondi, I. Boisse, X. Bonfils, C. Broeg, L. A. Buchhave, T. Bárczy, S. C. C. Barros, J. Cabrera, C. Cardona Guillen, I. Carleo, A. Castro-González, S. Charnoz, J. Christiansen, P. Cortes-Zuleta, S. Csizmadia, S. Dalal, M. B. Davies, M. Deleuil, X. Delfosse, L. Delrez, B.-O. Demory, A. B. Dunlavey, D. Ehrenreich, A. Erikson, R. B. Fernandes, A. Fortier, T. Forveille, L. Fossati, M. Fridlund, M. Gillon, R. F. Goeke, M. V. Goliguzova, E. J. Gonzales, M. N. Günther, M. Güdel, N. Heidari, C. E. Henze, S. Howell, S. Hoyer, J. I. Frey, K. G. Isaak, J. M. Jenkins, F. Kiefer, L. Kiss, J. Korth, P. F. L. Maxted, J. Laskar, A. Lecavelier Des Etangs, C. Lovis, M. B. Lund, R. Luque, D. Magrin, J. M. Almenara, E. Martioli, M. Mecina, J. V. Medina, D. Moldovan, M. Morales-Calderón, G. Morello, C. Moutou, F. Murgas, Eric L.N. Jensen, V. Nascimbeni, G. Olofsson, R. Ottensamer, I. Pagano, G. Peter, G. Piotto, D. Pollacco, D. Queloz, R. Ragazzoni, N. Rando, H. Rauer, I. Ribas, G. Ricker, O. D. S. Demangeon, A. M. S. Smith, N. Santos, G. Scandariato, S. Seager, S. G. Sousa, M. Steller, G. M. Szabó, D. Ségransan, N. Thomas, S. Udry, B. Ulmer, V. Van Grootel, R. Vanderspek, N. Walton, J. N. Winn

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

HIP 9618 (HD 12572, TOI-1471, TIC 306263608) is a bright (G = 9.0 mag) solar analogue. TESS photometry revealed the star to have two candidate planets with radii of 3.9 ± 0.044 R⊕ (HIP 9618 b) and 3.343 ± 0.039 R⊕ (HIP 9618 c). While the 20.77291 d period of HIP 9618 b was measured unambiguously, HIP 9618 c showed only two transits separated by a 680-d gap in the time series, leaving many possibilities for the period. To solve this issue, CHEOPS performed targeted photometry of period aliases to attempt to recover the true period of planet c, …

Deuterium Escape On Photoevaporating Sub-Neptunes, Pin-Gao Gu, Howard Chen

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

We investigate the evolution of the deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) mass ratio driven by EUV photoevaporation of hydrogen-rich atmospheres of close-in sub-Neptunes around solar-type stars. For the first time, the diffusion-limited approach in conjunction with energy-limited photoevaporation is considered in evaluating deuterium escape from evolving exoplanet H/He envelopes. We find that the planets with smaller initial gas envelopes and thus smaller sizes can lead to weaker atmospheric escape, which facilitates hydrogen–deuterium fractionation. Specifically, in our grid of simulations with a low envelope mass fraction of less than 0.005, a low-mass sub-Neptune (4–5 M⊕) at about 0.25–0.4 au or a high-mass sub-Neptune …

Spectroscopy Of Highly Charged Ions For Astrophysical And Laboratory Plasma Diagnostics, Yang Yang

All Dissertations

Electron beam ion traps (EBITs) are small-scale laboratory devices that create and trap highly charged ions (HCI) for spectroscopic studies. These devices create plasma conditions resembling astrophysical environments like stellar winds and supernova remnants, providing valuable insights into astrophysical plasma. Theoretical models for such systems require incorporating relativistic and quantum electrodynamics effects, making experimental studies of HCIs essential for benchmarking these theories.

Spectral analysis of astrophysical and laboratory plasma requires understanding the ionization balance. Accurate atomic data, including excitation, ionization, and recombination cross sections, along with precise knowledge of operating conditions such as electron beam density, electron beam energy, and …

Cosmic Diffuse Neutrino And Gamma-Ray Backgrounds In The Mev Regime, Ilukpitiye Samalka Anandagoda

All Dissertations

Cosmic Multi-Messenger backgrounds include relic diffuse components created in the early Universe and contributions from individual sources. In this dissertation, I present the work done in Anandagoda (2019); Anandagoda et al. (2020, 2023) where type Ia (SNe Ia) and core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) contributions to the diffuse neutrino and gamma-ray backgrounds in the MeV regime are studied. These backgrounds are referred to as DSNB and DSGB respectively. Based on this work, the diffuse SN Ia background is ~10⁶ times lower (for electron antineutrinos) than the CCSN background making it negligible. The predicted DSNB electron antineutrino flux at earth in the …

Simulating The Eccentricity Evolution Of Accreting Equal-Mass Binaries: Numerical Sensitivity To The Computational Domain Size And Grid Resolution, Zhongtian Hu

All Theses

With high resolution hydrodynamics simulations, we show that the optimal values of domain radius and grid resolution for the software Sailfish when simulating time-based eccentricity evolution of equal mass, non-circular accreting binaries in a circumbinary disk to be $r_{\rm out} \leq 15a$ and $\delta x / a \le 0.01 $. These values provide a useful guideline for optimizing the performance of simulation runs while maintaining scientific accuracy. Each artificial parameter is probed with 15 runs of 2000 orbits each.

Core States Of Neutron Stars From Anatomizing Their Scaled Structure Equations, Bao-Jun Cai, Bao-An Li, Zen Zhang

Faculty Publications

Given an Equation of State (EOS) for neutron star (NS) matter, there is a unique mass–radius sequence characterized by a maximum mass MNS max at radius Rmax. We first show analytically that the MNS max and Rmax scale linearly with two different combinations of the NS central pressure Pc and energy densityεc, by dissecting perturbatively the dimension less Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) equations governing NS internal variables. The scaling relations are then verified via 87 widely used and rather diverse phenomenological as well as 17 microscopic NS EOSs with/without considering hadron–quark phase transitions and hyperons, by solving numerically the original TOV equations. …

Eclipses, Aaron Steinhauer

Myth and Science, 2023-24

This lesson includes a series of four slide sets designed to cover increasingly specific eclipse content. Specifically, the slide sets cover the phases of the moon, lunar eclipses, solar eclipses generally, and a specific set for information about Geneseo's April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse.

Computational And Experimental Study On Undoped And Er-Doped Lithium Tantalate Nanofluorescent Probes, Mkhitar A. Hobosyan, Andrea Pelayo Carvajal, Bhupendra B. Srivastava, Tamanna Zakia, Mohammed Uddin, Karen S. Martirosyan, Eric Rodriguez, Kofi Nketia Ackaah-Gyasi, Nicholas Dimakis

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present a combined density functional theory (DFT) and experimental work on lithium tantalate LiTaO3 (LT) and its Er-doped counterparts. We calculate the electronic and optical properties for both LT and LT:Er+3, with Er occupying either Li or Ta sites, at 4.167 mol%. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) calculations show that the Er-4 f bands appear closer to the conduction band bottom and to the valance band top, for the first and second doped configurations, respectively. This agrees with changes in the imaginary part of the frequency dependent dielectric function between the doped configurations. There are striking differences between the …

Dataset Of Optical And Electronic Properties For Mos2-Graphene Vertical Heterostructures And Mos2-Graphene-Au Heterointerfaces, Sanju Gupta, Panagiota Pimenidou, Miguel Garcia, Shivanshi Das, Nicholas Dimakis

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The computational and experimental data presented in this paper refer to the research article "First-Principles Calculations Integrated with Experimental Optical and Electronic Properties for MoS2-graphene Heterostructures and MoS2-graphene-Au Heterointerfaces". The computational data includes structural information, electronic and optical properties, and data to calculate the work functions for various molybdenum disulfide and graphene heterostructures and their heterointerfaces with gold. The optical properties calculations include the frequency-dependent dielectric function, the refractive index, the reflectivity, the extinction coefficient, and the energy loss function. These properties were calculated using the independent particle approximation (IPA). As for the experimental optoelectronic properties, we measured photoluminescence spectra …

Delving Deep: A Population Of Extremely Dusty Dwarfs Observed By Jwst, L. Bisigello, G. Gandolfi, A. Grazian, G. Rodighiero, L. Costantin, A. R. Cooray, A. Feltre, C. Gruppioni, N. P. Hathi, Benne W. Holwerda, A. M. Koekemoer, R. A. Lucas, J. A. Newman, P. G. Pérez-González, L. Y. A. Yung, A. De La Vega, P. Arrabal Haro, M. B. Bagley, M. Dickinson, S. L. Finkelstein, J. S. Kartaltepe, C. Papovich, N. Pirzkal, S. Wilkins

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Aims. We take advantage of the NIRCam photometric observations available as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science survey (CEERS) to identify and analyse very red sources in an effort to discover very dusty star forming galaxies. Methods. We select red galaxies as objects with a S / N > 3 at 4.4 μm and a S / N < 2 in all JWST and HST filters at λ ≤ 2 μm, which corresponds to [ F 200 W ]−[ F 444 W ]> 1.2 considering CEERS depths. This selection is ideal to identify very dusty ( A V > 1 mag) galaxies with stellar masses between 10 6 and 10 10 M ⊙ at z < 5, more massive dusty galaxies at z = 5 − 18 and galaxies at z > 18 due to the Lyman absorption, independently of their dust …

Climatic Influences On Incipient Alteration In Mars-Relevant Ultramafic Soils, Anthony Feldman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An ongoing debate exists around the nature of the climatic conditions present during the Noachian and early Hesperian periods (~4.1 to 3 Gyr ago) of Mars’ ancient history. The various theories put forward can reasonably be grouped into “warm and wet” vs “cold and icy” camps. Warm and wet approximates an Earth-like system with a relatively clement climate with significant liquid water present including potentially long-lived oceans. Cold and icy theories generally postulate thick ice sheets at high elevations with periodic warming events driving precipitation and the formation of river channels and leading to the formation of chemical alteration products. …

Magmatic Processes Leading To Compositional Diversity In The Mars Crust, Amanda Marie Ostwald

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The ancient Mars crust can yield insights into planet formation and evolution that Earth cannot. Direct investigation of the martian surface is limited to studies on meteorites and rover-obtained analyses. The nakhlites and chassignites, two classes of martian meteorites, are together the largest suite of martian meteorites derived from a single location on the surface. As such, they present a rare opportunity to study the Mars crust in detail using samples bearing a contextual relationship. Rover studies have found a surprising amount of compositional diversity in surface materials, the formation mechanisms of which are not well-constrained. This dissertation leverages meteorites …