Research

ODIN Collaboration
Purdue University, 2022-2023
Advisors: Professor Kyoung-Soo Lee, Maria Celeste Artale

A primary goal of the ODIN (One-hundred-square-degree DECam Imaging in Narrowbands) Collaboration is to identify hundreds of protoclusters at z = 2.4, 3.1, and 4.5. My contribution to this project was to model protoclusters in IllustrisTNG to investigate how protoclusters and the galaxies within them evolve. I used Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) to trace the specific star formation rate, stellar mass, and other parameters, and compare how environmental density affects the evolution of cluster galaxies. LAEs have been found in overdence regions and can be used both observationally and in simulation at high redshift to probe clusters as they virialize and evolve. As a member of the ODIN collaboration, I participated in optical observing runs with DECam. Results of my project were be presented at the 241st AAS January 2023 Meeting in Seattle and an upcoming paper in April 2024.

Time Domain Astrophysics
Purdue University, 2019-2022
Advisor: Professor Dan Milisavljevic

As a member of the Time Domain Astrophysics research group at Purdue, I processed observations of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A taken with James Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument, Near Infrared Camera, and Near InfraRed Spectrograph. Specifically, I worked to identify and measure emission lines observed over the spectra. I've used the JWST Data Analysis Tool (JDAT), visualization tools (Jdavis), along with Astropy, PyRAF, and SAOImage ds9. The results of this work are presented in a series of papers with the first published in March 2024. My first research project as a member of the Time Domain Astrophysics group was where I aided in refining the Recommender Engine for Intelligent Transient Tracking (REFITT). REFITT is an autonomous program to study and prioritize transient events from all-sky surveys. I also worked independently on a template subtraction method to improve data augmentation of sparse supernova lightcurves. I performed photometry on MDM 1.3m telescope images leveraging the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) for template subtraction and was able to effectively remove galaxy contamination and differences in image quality.

Alignment of the central galaxies with the environment in simulations
National University of Córdoba (UNC) Argentine National Observatory (OAC), 2022
PI: Facundo Rodriguez, Manuel Merchán

The goal of this project is to combine ellipticity and major axis position angle measurements to determine the alignment of the central galaxies with the surrounding structures and satellite galaxies lying in their group. I aided in this project by calculating the shape and angular momentum tensor of stellar and dark matter particles in the IllustrisTNG simulation suite. I created tables of the galaxy and particle data that included the calculated tensors, stellar mass, position, computed galaxy formation time, among other required parameters. Paper of these results to be submitted to MNRAS December 2022.

Effects of Mergers on Stellar Kinematics of High-Redshift TNG Galaxies
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 2021
Advisor: Rainer Weinberger

I was a Research Experience for Undergraduates intern at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian where I analyzed major galaxy mergers using IllustrisTNG and their effect on the structure and quenching of high redshift quiescent galaxies. I then simulated rotation curves of different galaxies and compared the star formation history, merger history, angular momentum, and ellipticity of the galaxy data sets. I compared the results to observations within the local universe and found that at z=2, quiescent galaxies have a higher angular momentum and ellipticity. I presented the results of this at the 2021 End of Summer Symposium at the CfA.