Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-321).

Zugl.: Zürich, Univ., Diss., 2007.

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86).

The properties of planet-forming midplanes of protostellar disks remain largely unprobed by observations due to the high optical depth of common molecular lines and continuum. However, rotational emission lines from rare isotopologues may have optical depth near unity in the vertical direction, so that the lines are strong enough to be detected, yet remain transparent enough to trace the disk midplane. In this thesis, we present a chemical model of an MRI-active protoplanetary disk including different C, O isotopes and detailed photochemical reactions. The CO condensation front is found to be at 1.5 AU on the disk midplane around a solar like star, and its location remains almost unchanged during 3Myr of evolution. The optical depth of low-order rotational lines of C¹⁷O are around unity, which suggests it may be possible to see into the disk midplane using C¹⁷O. Such ALMA observations would provide estimates of the disk midplane temperature if the CO ice lines were spatially or spectrally resolved. With our computed C¹⁷O/H₂ abundance ratio, one would also be able to measure the disk masses by measuring the intensity of gas emission. / text

No description available.

Studies of central black holes (BHs) in nearby galaxies revealed tight correlation between the BH mass the host galaxy bulge mass, indicating a link between BH and star formation (SF) in the host galaxy. Luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) are powered by mass accretion onto supermassive BHs. Observations of the AGNs and the SF in their host galaxies are required to understand their relation and how they establish this BH mass-galaxy bulge mass correlation over a wide range of cosmic lookback times. This thesis presents a survey of 24 μm-selected luminous AGN and their host galaxies up to z ~ 3.2. It focuses on the foreground and background broad line (Type-1) and narrow line (Type-2) AGNs of 30 massive galaxy cluster fields with total survey area of 5.2 deg², using the multi-wavelength dataset from the ultraviolet (UV) to far infrared (FIR) from the Local Cluster Substructure Survey. The AGN sample is nearly complete to a 1 mJy flux cutoff at 24 μm, and is optical-spectroscopically identified. With this dataset and the accompanying MMT/Hectospec spectroscopy survey, the properties of AGNs such as BH masses, BH accretion rates, and total luminosities, can be readily determined. Particularly, the Herschel data (100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm) sample the FIR peak of sources in our sample, and provide constraints on the star formation rates (SFR) in the host galaxies. For the Type 1 AGN sample, most of the systems are at z > 0.6 with luminosities > 10^45 ergs/s. Out of the 205 Type-1 AGNs, 107 are detected in at least two Herschel bands. We use AGN, stellar, and SF galaxy templates to decompose their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from the UV to the FIR, and estimate their IR SF luminosities, AGN luminosities, and their host galaxy stellar masses. The SED decomposition reveals that a high level of SF is ubiquitous for our 24 μm-selected Type-1 AGN sample. For sources at z < 1, the stellar components from SED decomposition provide direct constraints on the stellar mass. For sources at z > 1, the BH mass-bulge stellar mass correlation is used for indirect constraints on the stellar mass. We carried out a similar analysis on the 85 Type-2 AGNs and their host galaxies up to z ~ 0.8, out of which 55 are detected in at least two Herschel bands. We reach the same conclusion as for the Type 1 AGN sample. That is, 1) These AGN host galaxies are very massive, and the vast majority of these galaxies have specific star formation rates (SSFR) consistent with those of main-sequence, star-forming galaxies rather than starbursting galaxies; 2) Most of these AGNs accrete at a rate close to 10% of Eddington; 3) We also find a strong correlation between the IR luminosity of the SF component and the AGN total luminosity, for both Type 1 and Type 2 AGNs. However, we show that the correlation could arise just because the BH mass (and hence AGN total luminosity) and the SF are both correlated with the galaxy mass, rather than requiring a causal connection between the observed rates of SF and the nuclear activity.

Adaptive optics using natural guide stars can produce images of amazing quality, but is limited to a small fraction of the sky due to the need for a relatively bright guidestar. Adaptive optics systems using a laser generated artifical reference can be used over a majority of the sky, but these systems have some attendant problems. These problems can be reduced by increasing the altitude of the laser return, and indeed a simple, single laser source focused at an altitude of 95 km on a layer of atmospheric sodium performs well for the current generation of 8-10 m telescopes. For future giant telescopes in the 20-30 m class, however, the errors due to incorrect atmospheric sampling and spot elongation will prohibit such a simple system from working.The system presented in this dissertation provides a solution to these problems. Not only does it provide the 6.5m MMT with a relatively inexpensive laser guide star system with unique capabilities, it allows research into solving many of the problems faced by laser guide star systems on future giant telescopes.The MMT laser guidestar system projects a constellation of five doubled Nd:YAG laser beams focused at a mean height of 25 km, with a dynamic refocus system that corrects for spot elongation and allows integrating the return from a 10 km long range gate. It has produced seeing limited spot sizes in ~1 arcsecond seeing conditions, and has enabled the first on-sky results of Ground Layer Adaptive Optics (GLAO).

The objective of this research is to study different novel developed techniques for spacecraft attitude determination methods using star tracker sensors. This dissertation addresses various issues on developing improved star tracker software, presents new approaches for better performance of star trackers, and considers applications to realize high precision attitude estimates. Star-sensors are often included in a spacecraft attitude-system instrument suite, where high accuracy pointing capability is required. Novel methods for image processing, camera parameters ground calibration, autonomous star pattern recognition, and recursive star identification are researched and implemented to achieve high accuracy and a high frame rate star tracker that can be used for many space missions. This dissertation presents the methods and algorithms implemented for the one Field of View 'FOV' StarNavI sensor that was tested aboard the STS-107 mission in spring 2003 and the two fields of view StarNavII sensor for the EO-3 spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2007. The results of this research enable advances in spacecraft attitude determination based upon real time star sensing and pattern recognition. Building upon recent developments in image processing, pattern recognition algorithms, focal plane detectors, electro-optics, and microprocessors, the star tracker concept utilized in this research has the following key objectives for spacecraft of the future: lower cost, lower mass and smaller volume, increased robustness to environment-induced aging and instrument response variations, increased adaptability and autonomy via recursive self-calibration and health-monitoring on-orbit. Many of these attributes are consequences of improved algorithms that are derived in this dissertation.

In the standard theory of pulsar spin-up, a neutron star (NS) in a binary system accretes matter from its companion star; this serves to transfer angular momentum to the NS, increasing the spin frequency of the pulsar. Measurement of the orbital parameters and system geometry, and in particular the final system masses, thus provide important constraints for theories regarding binary evolution. We present results from an investigation of three binary pulsar systems. PSR J1802-2124 is in an intermediate-mass pulsar binary system with a massive white dwarf companion in a compact orbit with a period of 16.8 hours. We have per-formed timing analysis on almost five years of data in order to determine the amount of Shapiro delay experienced by the incoming pulsar signal as it traverses the potential well of the companion star on its way to Earth. We find the pulsar in this system to have a relatively low mass at 1.24 ± 0.11 M®, and the companion mass to be 0.79 ± 0.04111.).We argue that the full set of system properties indicates that the system underwent a common-envelope phase in its evolutionary history. The double pulsar system PSR 0737-3039A/B is a highly relativistic double neutron star (DNS) binary, with a 2.4-hour orbital period. The low mass of the second-formed NS, as well the low system eccentricity and proper motion, have suggested a different evolutionary scenario compared to other known DNS systems. We describe analysis of the pulse profile shape over six years of observations, and present the constraints this provides on the system geometry. We find the recycled pulsar in this system, PSR 0737-3039A,to have a low misalignment angle between its spin and orbital angular momentum axes, with a 95.4% upper limit of 14 °, assuming emission from both magnetic poles. This tight constraint lends credence to the idea that the supernova that formed the second pulsar was relatively symmetric, possibly involving electron captures onto an 0-Ne-Mg core. We have also conducted timing analysis of PSR J1756-2251 using four years of data, and have obtained tight constraints on the component masses and orbital parameters in this DNS system. We have measured four post-Keplerian timing parameters for this pulsar; the Shapiro delay s parameter, with a 5% measured uncertainty, is consistent at just above the la level with the predictions of general relativity. The pulsar in this system has a fairly typical NS mass of 1.312 ± O.017M®, and the companion NS to be relatively light, with a mass of 1.2581017 Mo. This, together with the somewhat low orbital eccentricity of this system (e 0.18), suggests a similar evolution to that of the double pulsar. We investigate this further, through a similar pulse profile analysis to that performed with PSR J0737-3039A, with the goal of constraining the geometry of this system.

A sign pattern (matrix) is a matrix whose entries are from the set {+,–, 0}. A sign pattern matrix A is a spectrally arbitrary pattern if for every monic real polynomial p(x) of degree n there exists a real matrix B whose entries agree in sign with A such that the characteristic polynomial of B is p(x). All 3 × 3 SAP's, as well as tree sign patterns with star graphs that are SAP's, have already been characterized. We investigate tridiagonal sign patterns of order 4. All irreducible tridiagonal SAP's are identified. Necessary and sufficient conditions for an irreducible tridiagonal pattern to be an SAP are found. Some new techniques, such as innovative applications of Gröbner bases for demonstrating that a sign pattern is not potentially nilpotent, are introduced. Some properties of sign patterns that allow every possible inertia are established. Keywords: Sign pattern matrix, Spectrally arbitrary pattern (SAP), Inertially arbitrary pattern (IAP), Tree sign pattern (tsp), Potentially nilpotent pattern, Gröbner basis, Potentially stable pattern, Sign nonsingular, Sign singular