Research (justifying my stipend)
"It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how
nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature." - Niels Bohr
I currently work on two projects using the Spitzer Space Telescope. The
first, with Dr. Jeremy
Darling, seeks to quantify triggers of OH megamasers in ULIRGs by
using near- and mid-infrared spectral diagnostics. We've also imaged
subsets of the OHM sample using the 3.5m ARC telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.
The second project, with
Dr. John Stocke, examines the origin of
compact symmetric objects using the IRS on Spitzer.
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and producing this. |
Spitzer image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hubble Arp 220 image courtesy Arizona/Caltech/NASA
Word cloud of Willett et al. (submitted) produced by Wordle
I was lucky enough as an undergraduate to visit Parkes Observatory in
Australia twice with one of my professors,
Joel Weisberg.
During our first run (Aug-Sep 2004), we were the first to detect direct evidence of
astrophysical stimulated emission of radiation (maser activity) by
using pulsars as a narrow-beam probe of OH clouds in the interstellar
medium. The resulting
paper
was published in Science.
My second observing run, with Dr. Simon Johnston,
tracked pulse polarizations at 8 GHz
(published in MNRAS),
while also taking the time to search for
extra-galactic giant pulses from the Crab pulsar.
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Parkes image courtesy of CSIRO
My first astronomy was done with
Dr. Deidre Hunter at Lowell Observatory
through the REU program at
Northern Arizona University.
We studied large-scale structure in a
sample of irregular galaxies and published a
paper
on our work in the Astronomical
Journal. We found that the power spectrum slopes in irregular galaxies are
roughly the same as those in giant spirals (akin to Kolmogorov turbulence), suggesting
that the microscopic properties of star formation and ISM structure are the same regardless
of size.
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NGC 2366 image courtesy of D. Hunter, Lowell Observatory
Comps 1 study guide
This is a study guide that Phil Oakley and I produced over the course
of about one hyperstressed month while studying for our Comps 1 exam.
Available as a
PDF or
LaTeX file.
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