Live Poster Session: Zoom Link (Live Chat Only)
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT
Abstract: Observations of X-ray radiation from nearby galaxies provide the best opportunities to study the some of the universe’s most extreme environments, neutron stars (NSs) and black holes (BHs) interacting with stars in binary systems in particular. Emission from these X-ray binaries (XRBs) allows us to study the effects of compact objects on their environment and the physics evolved in their emission. XRBs are known to exist in distinct X-ray emission states related directly to their mass accretion rate; sources cycle through these states over time, and observing a full cycle would allow us to determine the nature of the compact object as either a NS or BH. Professor Kilgard’s group has been working on a complete census of XRBs in the local universe, a sample comprised of more than 45,000 individual sources. However, the timescales for emission cycles for XRBs can range from days to decades, making analysis difficult for large samples of objects. For this reason, we have conducted a detailed spectro-temporal analysis on a small subset of these sources, namely the 78 most luminous sources in the sample. For each of these sources, we have made rough determinations of X-ray spectral state and performed timing analysis to search for and characterize variability. Of the sources included in the sample, 15 are suspected serendipitous observations of previously unstudied objects for which we provide a preliminary classification. Additionally, we identify 5 sources of special interest for follow-up, both analytically and observationally, utilizing Van Vleck Observatory’s new 24” research telescope.
Tea_Summer2020_ResearchPoster-Mason-TeaLive Poster Session: Zoom Link (Live Chat Only)
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT
This is awesome. I’m curious … how do you plan to use Van Vleck’s telescopes for this project? 🙂