Physics

In February of 2022, the ALFALFA research group began observing galaxies hosting supernovae with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The resulting and incoming data requires reduction to extract important information, such as velocity, velocity width, and flux. In this project, we worked on implementing quality-of-life changes to an existing Python package to improve the experience of the researchers that will be using it.

Common tests that are used for biosensing are ones that involve a color change. The existing methods that are used to detect the color change can be inconvenient in terms of size, cost, and requirements for specialized training. The method that we suggest, which was tested in this research project, is taking colorimetric readings with a multispectral sensor. These sensors are inexpensive, portable, customizable, and do not require extra steps, such as wavelength calibration or image processing.

To further our understanding of the evolution of the universe, particularly the distribution of dark matter creating the cosmic web of galaxies and clusters, we need to determine distances to galaxies. The peak luminosities of Type Ia supernovae can be determined from their consistent light curves. Therefore, analysis of Type Ia supernovae within galaxies results in estimates of the distance modulus, a parameter that can be used to determine the distance of a supernova and its host galaxy. This estimate is impacted by the environment of a given supernova.

The universe is vast, yet only five percent of it consists of tangible matter. A large portion of the universe is made of dark matter and its structure is governed by the distribution of it, yet there is uncertainty as to what this entity is. For this research, thirteen galaxies and their velocities, flux, and Hubble distances are presented. Thirty-seven sets of observation data were reduced utilizing a package of functions written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) specifically for the measurement of a galaxy’s neutral-hydrogen profile.

My Modern Physics lab with Dr. Munir Pirbhai taught me a lot about spectroscopy, spectrometers, and their applications, how they work, and how to carry out experiments in an effective manner. Spectrometers are expensive devices but could be made for a very low cost, and I wanted to see if we could create an inexpensive spectrometer that can be used for the same applications as an expensive one. After taking computer science courses with Dr. Lisa Torrey and Dr. Choong-Soo Lee, I had a strong background in a few programming languages which was very helpful.