Publications (17)
Binospec: A Wide-field Imaging Spectrograph for the MMT
Daniel Fabricant, Robert Fata, Harland Epps +14
Binospec is a high throughput, 370 to 1000 nm, imaging spectrograph that addresses two adjacent 8' by 15' fields of view. Binospec was commissioned in late 2017 at the f/5 focus of…
Getting Ready for LISA: The Data, Support and Preparation Needed to Maximize US Participation in Space-Based Gravitational Wave Science
Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, :, Jillian Bellovary +20
The NASA LISA Study Team was tasked to study how NASA might support US scientists to participate and maximize the science return from the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)…
A quantitative spectral analysis of 14 hypervelocity stars from the MMT survey
Andreas Irrgang, Simon Kreuzer, Ulrich Heber +1
Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) travel so fast that they may leave the Galaxy. The tidal disruption of a binary system by the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center is widely as…
Data Reduction Pipeline for the MMT and Magellan Infrared Spectrograph
Igor Chilingarian, Yuri Beletsky, Sean Moran +3
We describe the new spectroscopic data reduction pipeline for the multi-object MMT/Magellan Infrared Spectrograph. The pipeline is implemented in idl as a stand-alone package and i…
Faint objects in motion: the new frontier of high precision astrometry
Fabien Malbet, Céline Boehm, Alberto Krone-Martins +83
Sky survey telescopes and powerful targeted telescopes play complementary roles in astronomy. In order to investigate the nature and characteristics of the motions of very faint ob…
Theia: Faint objects in motion or the new astrometry frontier
The Theia Collaboration, Celine Boehm, Alberto Krone-Martins +96
In the context of the ESA M5 (medium mission) call we proposed a new satellite mission, Theia, based on relative astrometry and extreme precision to study the motion of very faint…
The Emerging Class of Double-Faced White Dwarfs
Adam Moss, Mukremin Kilic, Pierre Bergeron +2
We report our findings on a spectroscopic survey of seven unresolved DA+DB binary white dwarf candidates. We have discovered extreme spectroscopic variations in one of these candid…
Data reduction pipeline for the MMT Magellan Infrared Spectrograph
Igor Chilingarian, Warren Brown, Daniel Fabricant +3
We describe principal components of the new spectroscopic data pipeline for the multi-object MMT/Magellan Infrared Spectrograph (MMIRS). The pipeline is implemented in IDL and C++.…
Hypervelocity Stars Trace a Supermassive Black Hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Jiwon Jesse Han, Kareem El-Badry, Scott Lucchini +5
Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) are produced by the Hills mechanism when a stellar binary is disrupted by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). The HVS Survey detected 21 unbound B-type mai…
NANCY: Next-generation All-sky Near-infrared Community surveY
Jiwon Jesse Han, Arjun Dey, Adrian M. Price-Whelan +206
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is capable of delivering an unprecedented all-sky, high-spatial resolution, multi-epoch infrared map to the astronomical community. This oppor…
Properties of Dark Matter Revealed by Astrometric Measurements of the Milky Way and Local Galaxies
Edward Shaya, Robert Olling, Massimo Ricotti +19
The fact that dark matter (DM), thus far, has revealed itself only on scales of galaxies and larger, again thrusts onto astrophysics the opportunity and the responsibility to confr…
A Serendipitous Pulsar Discovery in a Search for a Companion to a Low-Mass White Dwarf
Jeff J. Andrews, Marcel A. Agüeros, Fernando Camilo +4
We report the discovery of a previously unidentified pulsar as part of a radio campaign to identify neutron star companions to low-mass white dwarfs (LMWDs) using the Robert C.\ By…
Hypervelocity Stars: Young and Heavy or Old and Light?
Uli Heber, Heiko Hirsch, Heinz Edelmann +4
The first three hyper-velocity stars (HVS) unbound to the Galaxy were serendipitously discovered in 2005. The only suggested origin of hyper-velocity stars is the Galactic Centre a…
Signs of Binary Evolution in 7 Magnetic DA White Dwarfs
Adam Moss, Mukremin Kilic, P. Bergeron +2
We present our findings on the spectral analysis of seven magnetic white dwarfs that were presumed to be double degenerates. We obtained time-resolved spectroscopy at the Gemini Ob…
The Most Distant Stars in the Milky Way
John J. Bochanski, Beth Willman, Nelson Caldwell +4
We report on the discovery of the most distant Milky Way (MW) stars known to date: ULAS J001535.72015549.6 and ULAS J074417.48253233.0. These stars were selected as M giant c…
MMT & Magellan Infrared Spectrograph
Brian McLeod, Daniel Fabricant, George Nystrom +19
The MMT and Magellan infrared spectrograph (MMIRS) is a cryogenic multiple slit spectrograph operating in the wavelength range 0.9-2.4 micron. MMIRS' refractive optics offer a 6.9…
Building A Field: The Future of Astronomy with Gravitational Waves, A State of The Profession Consideration for Astro2020
Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Joey Shapiro Key, Brittany Kamai +28
Harnessing the sheer discovery potential of gravitational wave astronomy will require bold, deliberate, and sustained efforts to train and develop the requisite workforce. The next…