In the outer solar system, there is a region of objects called the Kuiper Belt. Many objects in this belt have remained untouched since the beginning of our solar system and studying them can give us insight into the formation of the solar system. Some of these objects have moons, and when we take pictures of these objects and track the motion of their moon, we can measure many qualities of the objects, such as mass, density, and shape. So far, these densities fall into one of two distinct categories: larger objects have higher densities than smaller objects. To understand why there are these two categories, planetary scientists need more density measurements of “mid-size” objects in the transition. One such object - 2013 FY27 - has a known radius, but unknown mass. Tracking the orbit of its moon to measure the mass is challenging because the moon is often too close and too faint to easily distinguish from the light of FY27. We have used advanced Bayesian statistical models to better distinguish the moon’s position and to determine the density. Preliminary results have shown a few possible orbits and have not yet clearly identified whether FY27 is low or high density.

We report on companion demographics of ~300 stellar multiples within 25 pc from the Robo-AO survey of ~1150 stars of all spectral types. The survey combined direct imaging by Robo-AO, a robotic adaptive optics instrument for 2-m class telescopes, to detect tight companions with Gaia data to detect wider companions. The companion separations range from 1.57 - 6284 AU.

Our goal is to better understand stellar multiplicity in the solar neighborhood by exploring the diversity in which these systems exist, how frequently they appear, and how these systems are formed. We analyzed different properties of these stellar systems such as separation, mass, mass ratio, and spectral type to search for trends in their distributions. We estimated masses using empirical color-spectral type relations from various studies and combined them to reach a final mass estimate. We report on the distribution of mass ratio between the primary and companion, masses and separation and explore the biases that affect the resulting distribution trends.

Objects orbiting the Sun at the edge of the solar system are called Kuiper Belt Objects. A small group of these objects are called cold classicals; they are unique because they are pristine, or they have not changed since they were formed in the early solar system. Because of their pristine nature, cold classicals help us gain insight into how the Kuiper Belt was formed. Using our Bayesian data analysis program, Multimoon, we have been able to model the shapes of two of these cold classicals – Borasisi and Sila – by tracking the orbits of their moons. The shapes of Kuiper Belt objects provide important new information about how they formed but are challenging to measure and we provide unique insights for the first time. Borasisi has been found to have a very high J2 value (a measurement of how much the object is squished like a pancake) and a high C22 value (a measurement of how much the object is stretched to look like a football). Sila’s moon Nunam has a more complicated orbit, preventing clear measurements, though there is statistical evidence that Sila also has an elongated shape. Our unique measurement of non-spherical shapes in the cold classical Kuiper belt helps to support the prevailing Kuiper Belt formation theory.

Dark matter's identity and behavior is a central question at the cosmological and quantum scales. Potential candidates for dark matter particles are soft unclustered energy patterns (SUEPs), which are spherically symmetric showers of low-energy particles. However, SUEPs are unexplored as their low-energy constituents cannot be distinguished from high-energy background events at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Here, solutions are developed for CMS by investigating Monte Carlo simulations of SUEP and background events, modeled from several SUEP mass benchmarks and LHC Run 2 data, respectively. Both event types were tested before and after boosting, a novel method that changes the frame of reference so that the SUEP's spherical shape is more distinct from background events. At the more challenging lower mass benchmarks, all boosted selections outperformed their unboosted counterparts in SUEP discrimination. At higher mass benchmarks, SUEP candidates were fully separated from the background for all unboosted and boosted selections. The present study is the first to implement and conclude that boosting is necessary for discriminating SUEPs, which will be tested for LHC Run 3.

We study the emission mechanisms at work within very high-energy blazars by observing them when they are in a flaring state. For this to occur, it is necessary to be able to determine which sources are in active states. The space-based Fermi Large Area Telescope has a wide field of view, allowing it to efficiently monitor the sky for flaring blazars. Fermi is stationed in space to detect gamma rays directly whereas VERITAS, a ground-based gamma-ray observatory, detects gamma-ray-initiated showers from the ground. Our project seeks to create a trigger when a source is flaring in order to send an alert to the VERITAS team so they can direct the telescopes to observe the flare. Our mission is to focus on two state criteria to indicate a source is in a flaring state: the number of high-energy photons and the ratio of high-energy photons to low-energy photons. We aim to set thresholds that will allow telescopes such as VERITAS to trigger on approximately 10 total high states per year.

We discuss the physics of momentum diffusion in a charged plasma. Following the holographic strategy, we construct an open effective field theory for the low-lying modes of the conserved currents. The charged plasma is modeled holographically in terms of a Reissner-Nordström-AdS_d+1 black hole with triangle anomaly. We analyze graviton and photon fluctuations about this background, decoupling in the process the long-lived momentum diffusion mode from the short-lived charged transport mode.

Gravitational waves are disturbances in spacetime. They result from intense processes involving massive bodies, like supernovae or colliding black holes. Despite the immense scale of these events, the strain in spacetime generated by these interactions is around the order of 1 in 10^21. The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO) detects such small-scale perturbations. Because gravitational waves can carry information otherwise undetectable by traditional EM telescopes, LIGO’s results are instrumental to offering new insights into black holes, neutron stars, and other aspects of the universe.

The two aLIGO detectors are Michelson interferometers, and each requires a fixed distance between their mirrors to detect whether a gravitational wave passes through and changes the relative distance between them. To accomplish this, LIGO has implemented a complex system of active and passive motion reduction practices. The Seismic Platform Interferometer (SPI) is a fringe-counting auxiliary interferometer that has been designed to reduce noise at low frequencies, aiming to have subnanometer stability over several hours. In this experiment, the SPI was prototyped and characterized in both air and vacuum.

In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of spacetime itself — for the first time in history, from a collision between two black holes. Since then, LIGO has detected gravitational waves from dozens more collisions between black holes (BH), as well as between neutron stars (NS) reshaping our understanding of the universe. Collisions between neutron stars and black holes (NSBH) are especially unique astrophysical laboratories. Nuclear physics sets an upper limit on the mass of neutron stars, but quickly-rotating neutron stars can support additional mass. Moreover, it is widely believed that the smallest black holes are much more massive than this upper limit, such that there is a “gap” in the compact object mass distribution. To investigate the impact of extra-massive, neutron stars I created statistical models for their masses and spins. I analyzed the NSBH population for both real, measured LIGO data and simulated future observations. I showed that not modeling extra-massive NS results in bias, but with proper modeling, we can confidently measure the maximum NS mass and detect the “mass gap”, allowing us to probe the universe’s most extreme matter.

High-entropy alloys are comprised of 5 or more elements in equal proportions, resulting in a large configurational entropy. These alloys' unique composition gives rise to properties not observable in conventional materials. While many of these alloys are known to be magnetic, their magnetic properties have not been studied in detail. CrMnFeCoNi, or Cantor's alloy, is one of the most well known high-entropy alloys. We used muon spin relaxation, a highly sensitive probe of magnetism, to examine the magnetism of various samples of Cantor's alloy, including samples undergoing different treatments in formation and samples with nonequiatomic stoichiometry. The magnetic transition temperature and character of the transition are found to be highly sensitive to the preparation methods and atomic ratios. We also observe significant differences in the spin dynamics depending on the composition. These results set the stage for investigating applications of the magnetic properties of high entropy materials.

Lorneic Acids are a group of natural products that were isolated from various strands of bacteria , which were extracted from marine sediment in Japan. These biologically active molecules were found to behave as phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors, which indicates that they have to potential to acts as drug candidates to treat a wide variety of diseases. The objective of this project is to utilize spectroscopic techniques to ensure that each reaction was properly executed for all steps in the first total synthesis of Lorneic Acid F. Interpreting the vibrational motions in an Infrared (IR) spectrum as well as the signals created in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) yields a unique identifier for these molecules. These intricate techniques utilize physics as well as mathematical concepts/models in order to properly function in analyzing the structure of organic compounds.

Measuring the mechanical forces exerted within living organisms can improve our understanding of physiological and pathological phenomena, but current methods of live (or in vivo) force measurement are often invasive or limited to controlled experimental settings. We address this issue in this project by developing upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) embedded in polymers as minimally invasive in vivo force sensors. These nanoscale particles absorb near-infrared light, emit visible light, and exhibit a change in their emission spectra under external applied force. We synthesized lanthanide-based UCNPs doped with varying concentrations of manganese to calibrate and optimize their sensitivity to applied forces. By pressing on the UCNPs embedded in polymer thin films using an atomic force microscopy tip, we found that the manganese-doped UCNPs demonstrated a more dramatic change in their emission spectra than the undoped UCNPs. These preliminary results not only demonstrate a strategy to increase the mechanosensitivity of UCNPs, but also represent a step toward implementing them safely and effectively as intercellular force sensors for biological hosts.