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Research
In 2008, I worked with Dr.
Sharon Montgomery on reducing and interpreting HI
(21-centimeter) maps of diffuse interstellar clouds taken at the Green
Bank
Radio Telescope. I traveled to Green Bank, to learn how to reduce the
radio
data by working with Dr. Jay Lockman. Our long-term goal is to obtain
radial
distances to a set of six such clouds, to then use in conjunction with
Na-D
lines in associated stellar spectra.
I now work with Dr. Bernie
McNamara and Dr. Jon Holtzman on mining the SDSS SN survey for GRB
orphan optical afterglows.
The energy outputs measured
for a GRB are too high to be explained by an isotropic energy
distribution; therefore, it is suspected that the gamma-ray emission is
actually beamed which is known as the fireball model. These jets
must be along the observer's line of sight for the gamma-ray
emission to be seen, but the optical afterglow does not have this
requirement. A certain percentage of optical afterglows should be
observed without a corresponding GRB.
The SDSS SN survey ran for
three months in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Two strips of the sky
totally 300 deg^2 were scanned in the Sloan u, g, r, i, z bands on
alternating nights. After a vetting process, around 10,600
potential orphan afterglow candidates were found. I am currently
working on applying the characteristics of known orphan afterglows to
the photometry data of these candidates.
I also have a strong interest in science education and chemistry.
Meetings
AAS January 2006
AAS January 2008
Link to TA
Webpage