Research

Projects

Detecting Quiescent Black Hole Binaries

Currently, I am working with Marla Geha and Charles Bailyn to develop a method to find X-ray binary systems which aren’t emitting X-rays (seems like a bit of a misnomer to me…) Stellar population models predict there should be ~107 black holes in the Milky Way alone, but we only know of 18 confirmed systems (40 candidates). We are seeking to bridge this gap by looking for black holes in binaries using their optical light curves instead of waiting for the system to have an X-ray outburst.

Specifically, we are looking at binary systems where the black hole is close enough to its stellar companion to induce significant Roche-lobe distortions on the star. This, in turn, produces an ellipsoidal light curve just due to projection effects. The animation below (credit) is for the Algol binary system, which is the prototypical stellar binary with this effect. We are trying to find a way to parameterize light curves from black hole binaries which distinguishes them from stellar binaries like the Algol system. Stay tuned to see if we succeed!

 

The Effect of Baryons on Dark Matter Halos

I have also worked on the effect of baryons on dark matter with Frank van den Bosch. Supernova feedback is often invoked to explain why we observe cores in the density profile of halos of dwarf galaxies, but dark-matter-only simulations predict cusped density profiles. While a few theories have been published to explain how feedback can shallow out the central density profile, a systematic exploration of the effects of numerics and physical parameters on the strength of core-creation has not been published.

Using an analytic baryon potential oscillating in an isolated halo, we ran an N-body simulation to explore the effects of mass resolution (number of particles), spatial resolution (softening length), temporal resolution (time step), and the time-evolution of the baryon potential. We are currently in the process of writing up our results and hope to have a paper published by the end of the year.

Undergraduate Projects

I completed my undergraduate study at Union College in Schenectady, NY. During that time, I worked with Becky Koopmann as a member of the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team where I studied star formation in galaxies with little to no HI detection in the ALFALFA blind HI survey.

I also worked with Jeff Kenney at Yale to create a quantitative metric of the strength of Ram Pressure Stripping a galaxy is currently experiencing.

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