Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2021 Virtual Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics
Friday–Sunday, January 22–24, 2021; Virtual
Session U08: Astrophysics and Cosmology IIInteractive Live
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Chair: Lindsey Bleem, Argonne National Laboratory |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:00PM - 12:10PM |
U08.00001: Analysis of a Sample of High Redshift, High Luminosity FeLoBAL Quasars Julianna Voelker, Hyunseop Choi, Karen Leighly, Collin Dabbieri, Cora DeFrancesco Quasars are particularly luminous Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). By modeling their spectra and absorption lines, we can derive the physical parameters of the absorbing gas as well as the velocities of quasar outflows, which tell us how powerful the outflow is. FeLoBAL quasars contain high ionization and low ionization broad absorption lines as well as iron lines and can contain the most powerful outflows, which provide information about galaxy evolution. Our group models FeLoBAL quasars using the novel spectral synthesis code SimBAL, which uses Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to fit a model to the spectra and derive the physical parameters of the absorbing gas from that model. In this talk, we discuss a sample of high redshift, high luminosity quasars. As higher luminosity quasars are associated with faster outflows, we can obtain more information about quasar outflows and physical gas properties. After modeling our objects using SimBAL, we used the derived physical parameters to determine how many objects had sufficiently powerful outflows (L$_{\mathrm{KE}}$/L$_{\mathrm{bol}}$ \textgreater 0.005) and we also analyzed the differences between objects in a previously studied low redshift sample and the objects in our sample. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:10PM - 12:20PM |
U08.00002: Multi-Messenger Constraints on the Galactic Electron Density Maryam Haytham Esmat, Katelyn Breivik, Shane Larson The galactic electron density is challenging to constrain because distances to radio sources are notoriously difficult to measure. LISA, a future space-based gravitational-wave detector, will be able to measure the distance to pulsars in binaries with orbital periods less than roughly 20 minutes. Using multi-messenger astronomy, namely gravitational waves and radio emission, the observed distance and the dispersion measure of pulsars in close binary systems can be used to directly constrain the galactic electron density. We simulate the population of neutron stars in binary systems in the Milky Way using the Compact Object Synthesis {\&} Monte Carlo Investigation (COSMIC) code to determine how many neutron stars are both detectable by gravitational waves and radio emission. From this population, we aim to constrain current models of the galactic electron density. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:20PM - 12:30PM |
U08.00003: Rotational Kinematics of the Galactic Dark Halo Through the Lens of Stellar Streams Rebecca Guilfoyle, Monica Valluri The dark matter halo of the Milky Way galaxy is presumed to be triaxial. Cosmological simulations predict that triaxial halos should tumble or rotate (figure rotation) so slow that it is virtually undetectable. A recent study has found that it is possible to determine the rotational kinematics of the dark matter halo by studying its effects on long stellar streams in the halo of the Milky Way. However, the perturbations due to the rotation of the triaxial dark matter halo can be similar to effects caused by the gravitational pull of the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. In this project, we aim to shed light on the rotational kinematics of the Galactic dark halo by simulating multiple stellar streams in various orientations originating from various progenitor masses within the dark matter halo of the Milky Way without the presence of the LMC. We hope to gain insights on whether the rotation of the halo can be detected using stellar streams distributed across the entire halo. These simulations may provide a new way of detecting cold dark matter halo rotation. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:30PM - 12:40PM |
U08.00004: The First Successful Use of Multiple Lines of Sight to Measure Faraday Rotation Through a Coronal Mass Ejection Madison Ascione, Jason Kooi, Lianis Reyes-Rosa, Sophia Rier, Mohammad Ashas Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large eruptions of magnetized plasma that are ejected from the Sun. CMEs produce energetic particles and enhance terrestrial current systems that can create geomagnetic storms on Earth, cause major grid blackouts, and disrupt satellite signals. Understand CMEs is important in order to better forecast space weather, allowing ample time to prepare in the event a large CME is projected to hit Earth. One method proven successful in determining the strength and structure of the coronal magnetic field and physics of CMEs is Faraday rotation (FR), which is the rotation of the plane of polarization when linearly polarized radiation propagates through a magnetized plasma. Previous observations of CME FR have all been limited to a single line of sight (LOS) whereas we report the first successful observations of FR through a CME using \textit{multiple }LOS: 13 LOS across seven target radio fields. These observations were made on 31 July, 2015 using the \textit{Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array }(VLA) at 1-2 GHz frequencies using a constellation of radio sources at heliocentric distances of 8.2-19.5 solar radii, and are the first \textit{triggered }VLA observations of CME FR. The advantage of multiple LOS is that we can determine the CME's magnetic field strength and orientation. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:40PM - 12:50PM |
U08.00005: Versatile Continuum Normalization for Precise Spectral Measurements with the Habitable-Zone Planet Finder Freja Olsen, Adam Ickler, Ryan Terrien, Ally Keen, Katy Oda The abundances of certain metals in stars can tell us much about the properties of the star and the exoplanets it hosts. Abundances are measured by measuring the depths of spectral absorption lines below the continuum. For M dwarf stars, it is difficult to identify a consistent continuum level due to the complexity of their spectra. To get accurate measurements we need to normalize the continuum and devise ways for determining precision. I wrote a program that normalized the spectrum so that it was consistent for all stars and tested the precision of the resulting measurements by performing statistical analysis on frequently observed stars and finding distribution for the equivalent widths found. This created usable methods for preparing new spectra for analysis and determining uncertainties for new lines that greatly reduce the time needed for finding equivalent widths of spectral lines to be used for determining abundances. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:50PM - 1:00PM |
U08.00006: HCC’s Next Generation of Exoplanet Research Farah Alabdulrazzak, Nichole Warner, Johnathon Hernandez, Bryan cheung, Brendan Diamond As the field of exoplanet research has progressed, further improvements to the quality of data are necessary to detect more subtle signals. Four aspects of the telescope’s camera hardware were analyzed in our research: choice of calibration method, linearity of the camera, uniformity of focus, and the impact of telescope balance. The twilight sky was determined to be slightly more precise than images of a calibration light panel. The camera detector was determined to be linear in its response to incident light, and the detector is precise for measurements of light. For the focus, there was a clear systematic difference that yielded a focus that was not uniform, possible corrections are discussed. Rebalancing the telescope has significantly improved the telescope tracking. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 1:00PM - 1:10PM |
U08.00007: Deblending Interacting Galaxies using SCARLET Ashley Martsen, Jeyhan Kartaltepe, Michael Lam, Fred Moolekamp Being able to seperate the light from two merging galaxies is important to being able to study the galaxies individually, as well as determine if the galaxies are physically merging or just visually overlapping. This becomes more important at higher Redshifts as the details become harder to make out. There are multiple ways to deblend these galaxies, I used a program called SCARLET to do so. SCARLET uses multiple wavelengths to model the morphology and SED of a given image, to create a model that more accurately accounts for the features of the image given. This allows the model to overlap galaxies, which many common deblending methods do not do. It also takes into account the differences in the galaxies and captures the different wavelengths produced in different areas of the galaxies. All this allows for each of merging galaxies to be separated and analyzed individually, giving better understanding of the galaxies involved. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 1:10PM - 1:20PM |
U08.00008: Quantum Properties of Black Holes: Further Understanding the Double Cone Spacetime Claire Keckley The double cone spacetime is a black hole topology created by Douglass Stanford and Stephen Shenker at Stanford University. This topology is an essential part of a calculation which demonstrates the quantum properties of black holes and could ultimately help show how quantum mechanics and general relativity fit together. It initially seemed that a freely falling object should enter a region which was not accounted for on this topology after a finite amount of proper time, so it was unclear whether the double cone spacetime would give the correct answer to the calculation. I completed an analysis of the topology after a mathematical shift into the complex plane and showed that, because the topology is geodesically complete, the double cone spacetime is valid for use in the calculation. [Preview Abstract] |
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