As space technologies continue to develop rapidly, there is a common desire to launch astronauts beyond the ISS to return to the Moon and put human footsteps on Mars. One of the largest hurdles that still needs to be addressed is the protection of astronauts from the radiation environment seen in deep space. The most effective way to defend against radiation is increasing the thickness of the shield, however this is limited by strict mass requirements. In order to increase the thickness of the shield, it is beneficial to make mission critical items double as shielding material. The human rated Orion spacecraft has procedures in place for astronauts to create an emergency bunker using food and water in the event of a forewarned radiation storm. This can provide substantial support to defend against radiation storms when there is an adequate amount of warning time, however, fails to protect against Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) or Solar Particle Events (SPE) without sufficient warning. Utilizing these materials as a permanent shielding method throughout the mission could be a beneficial alternative to the Orion programs current protection plan to provide constant safety to the crew. This thesis analyzes the effect in the radiation dosage seen by astronauts in the Orion Crew Module through use of on-board water as a permanent shielding fixture. The primary method used to analyze radiation is NASA’s OLTARIS (On-Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation In Space) program, which enables users to input thickness distributions to determine a mission dosage profile. In addition this thesis further develops a ray tracing code which enables users to import male and female models into the vehicle model to produce gender specific radiation dosage results. The data suggests the permanent inclusion of water as a shielding material provides added support for GCR as well as SPE radiation that can extend the mission lifetime of humans in space.

<p> Core-collapse supernovae are among the most consequential astronomical events. They impact galaxy evolution, chemical enrichment of the Universe, and the creation of exotic objects (e.g., black holes and neutron stars). However, aspects of supernovae such as explosion asymmetry and progenitor mass loss are not well understood. Young, nearby supernova remnants are excellent laboratories to uniquely constrain some these fundamental properties. In this thesis, I investigate two nearby oxygen-rich supernova remnants and measure the proper motion of their ejecta to estimate their center of expansions and explosion ages. These properties are important for determining central compact object ‘kick’ velocities, guiding searches for surviving companions, and creating 3D remnant reconstructions. </p> <p><br></p> <p>I estimate the center of expansion and age of two supernova remnants, 1E0102.2-7219 (E0102) and N132D utilizing two epochs of Hubble Space Telescope imaging to measure the proper motion of their ejecta. For E0102, the proper motions show evidence for a nonhomologous expansion, which combined with spectral observations, support the idea that this remnant is expanding into an asymmetric circumstellar environment. Using the new proper-motion derived age and center of expansion, I provide a new ‘kick’ velocity estimate for E0102’s candidate neutron star. For N132D, I measure the proper motion of the ejecta both visually and using a novel computer vision procedure which identifies and measures the proper motions of the knots. I find that N132D’s ejecta are still ballistic, along with evidence of explosion asymmetry. My results represent the first proper-motion derived center of expansion and age of N132D. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Finally, I investigate diffuse interstellar bands observed towards progenitor candidates of core-collapse supernovae to test whether time variability can be a possible probe of the mass loss and surrounding environments of these systems. I find evidence of time variability in diffuse interstellar band carriers located in two of these environments. This is especially unusual as diffuse interstellar bands are normally attributed to the interstellar medium. These findings imply that the sources of these bands are closer to the stellar objects than previously thought and can provide insight into the currently unknown sources of diffuse interstellar bands. </p>

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第19497号 / 理博第4157号 / 新制||理||1597(附属図書館) / 32533 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 鶴 剛, 教授 谷森 達, 准教授 成木 恵 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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Multi-messenger astronomy is a very hot topic in the astrophysical community. A messenger is something that carries information. Different astrophysical messenger types are photons, cosmic rays, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. They all carry unique and complementary information to one another. The idea with multi-messenger astronomy is that the more different types of messengers one can obtain from the same event, the more complete the physical picture becomes. In this thesis I study the multi-messenger emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most luminous events known in the Universe. Specifically, I study the connection of GRBs to extremely energetic particles called ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). UHECRs have unknown origin despite extensive research. GRBs have long been one of the best candidates for the acceleration of these particles but a firm connection is yet to be made. In Paper I and Paper II, we study the possible GRB-UHECR connection by looking at the electromagnetic radiation from electrons that would also be accelerated together with the UHECR. My conclusion is that the signal from these electrons does not match current GRB observation, disfavoring that a majority of UHECRs comes from GRBs. / ”Multi-messenger astronomy” (mångbudbärarastronomi, fri översättning) är ett väldigt aktuellt område inom astrofysiken just nu. En meddelare är någonting som bär på information. Olika meddelartyper inom astrofysiken är fotoner, kosmisk strålning, neutriner och gravitations vågor. Dessa har alla unik och olika typ av information som kompletterar varandra. Idén bakom multi-meddelare-astronomi är att ju fler olika meddelartyper vi kan upptäcka från samma event, desto mer komplett blir vår fysikaliska tolkning. I denna avhandling studerar jag multi-meddelare emission från gammablixtar (GRBs), de mest ljusstarka företeelser vi känner till i Universum. Mer specifikt, så studerar jag kopplingen mellan GRBs och ultraenergetisk kosmisk strålning (UHECRs). Ursprunget till UHECRs är fortfarande okänt trots långt pågående forskning. GRBs har länge varit en av de mest lovande accelerationskandidaterna men än så länge finns inga fasta bevis. I Paper I och Paper II studerar vi den möjliga GRB-UHECR kopplingen genom att studera den elektromagnetiska strålningen från elektronerna som även de skulle bli accelererade tillsammans med UHECRs. Min slutsats är att strålningen från elektronerna inte matchar observationer från GRBs, vilket talar emot att en majoritet av UHECRs kommer från GRBs.

Solar wind shocks and the intracluster medium comprise hot, low-density plasmas with few Coulomb collisions. Electrons there are not fluid and so gain and exchange energy by interaction with a variety of plasma waves. We explore two mechanisms for electron energization in such plasmas. In 2D kinetic simulations of solar wind shocks with low beta (magnetic pressure greater than thermal pressure), fast-mode / oblique-whistler waves accelerate electrons in bulk via proton-scale parallel electric fields; electrons’ bulk kinetic energy then converts to heat via magnetic field-aligned electrostatic wave scattering. We show and measure the heating for 2D shocks of varying magnetic obliquity and Mach number, and we qualitatively map the mechanism’s shock parameter regime. Next, consider the intracluster medium: a high-beta plasma (thermal pressure greater than magnetic pressure) in which Megaparsec-scale motions promptly trigger nanoparsec-scale plasma waves, which in turn can scatter 1–100 MeV cosmic ray electrons. Small-scale scattering combined with large-scale motion can heat electrons, and this process is called magnetic pumping. We use 1D simulations of plasma subjected to continuous bulk compression to measure the efficiency of magnetic pumping upon cosmic ray electrons. It is speculated that magnetic pumping may help re-accelerate MeV electrons to radio-emitting energies and so help explain the origin of diffuse, MHz–GHz radio halos enshrouding some clusters of galaxies.

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