This thesis investigates the properties of dark matter halos and places constraints on the baryons within them by utilizing observational data. In Chapter 2, we use spherical collapse dynamics to calculate the non-linear over-density of a dark matter halo at virialization given realistic initial and final density profiles in an Einstein-de Sitter cosmology and cosmologies with matter, dark energy and possible curvature. We find that the non-linear over-density at virialization can be reduced by as much as a factor of 10 as compared to the standard value. / Physics

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Earth and Space Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-150). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR19684

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- California Institute of Technology, 2010. / Title from home page (viewed 05/13/10). Advisor and committee chair names found in the thesis' metadata record in the digital repository. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> In the study of astronomical transients, deriving knowledge from discovery is a multifaceted process that includes real-time classification to identify new events of interest, deep, multi-wavelength follow-up of individual events, and the global analysis of multi-event catalogs. Here we present a body of work encompassing each of these steps as applied to the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). First, we present our work on utilizing machine-learning algorithms on early-time metrics from the <i>Swift</i> satellite to inform the resource allocation of follow-up telescopes in order to optimize time spent on high-redshift GRB candidates. Next, we show broadband observations and analysis of the early-time afterglow of GRB 120119A, utilizing data obtained with a dozen telescope facilities both in space and on the ground. This event exhibits extreme red-to-blue color change in the first few minutes after the trigger at levels unseen in prior afterglows, and our model fits of this phenomenon reveal the best support yet for the direct detection of dust destruction in the local environment of a GRB. Finally, we present results from the PAIRITEL early-time near-infrared (NIR) afterglow catalog. The 1.3 meter PAIRITEL has autonomously observed 14 GRBs in under 3 minutes after the burst, yielding a homogenous sample of early-time <i>JHK_s</i> light curves. Our analysis of these events provides constraints on the early-time NIR GRB afterglow luminosity function and gives insight into the importance of dust extinction in the suppression of some optical afterglows.</p>

abstract: Gamma-ray burst observations provide a great opportunity for cosmography in high redshift. Some tight correlations between different physical properties of GRBs are discovered and used for cosmography. However, data selection, assumptions, systematic uncertainty and some other issues affect most of them. Most importantly, until the physical origin of a relation is understood, one should be cautious to employ the relation to utilize Gamma ray bursts for cosmography. In the first part of this dissertation, I use Liang-Zhang correlation to constrain ¦« Cold Dark Matter standard cosmology and a particular class of brane cosmology (brane-induced gravity model). With the most probable model being ¦¸_m=0.23 and ¦¸_¦«=0.77 for flat ¦«CDM cosmology and ¦¸_m=0.18 and ¦¸_(r_c )=0.17 for flat brane-induced gravity cosmology, my result for the energy components of these two models is comparable with the result from SNIa observation. With average uncertainty of distance modulus being 0.2771, the two discussed cosmologies are indistinguishable using my current sample of GRB with redshift ranging between 0.1685 and 3.2. I argue that by expanding my sample and adding more low and high redshift GRBs and also with improvement in using GRB for cosmography, we might be able to distinguish between different cosmological models and tighten the most probable model. Looking into correlation and evolution of GRB prompt emission and afterglow has many advantages. It helps to open windows to comprehend the physics of GRBs and examine different GRB models. It is also possible to use GRB correlation as an accurate redshift estimator and more importantly to constrain the cosmological parameters. XRT flares of GRB afterglow are thought to be the result of central engine activity. Studying this component leads us to understand GRB flare and central engine nature. In the next part of this dissertation, I study the correlation and evolution of different prompt emission and afterglow GRB properties and some GRB flare-based quantities. Considering instrument bias and selection effect, I conclude some well-correlated correlations and establish some property evolution. The correlation between average luminosity and isotropic ¦Ã-ray energy, energy of plateau and isotropic ¦Ã-ray energy and luminosity at break time and break time and evolution of plateau energy are well established. It is also realized that the apparent evolution of isotropic ¦Ã-ray energy and average luminosity is due to the instrumental flux threshold. With expanding the sample of GRB and accommodating more GRBs with XRT flares to my sample, I can reevaluate my result more firmly and confirm or rule out some hard to assert results due to limited number of data. In search for physically motivated GRB relation, analyzing the thermal component of GRB prompt emission, I derive two well-correlated relations. They are between calculated and estimated flux of the GRB thermal component for the co-moving bolometric and co-moving detector band-pass range of spectrum. In this study, three samples of Swift, pre-Swift and combined samples are used. The quality of this correlation is comparable with the Ghirlanda relation in terms of Spearman rank correlation parameters (correlation coefficient and correlation significance) and reduced ¦Ö^2of best fit. These results for the Swift GRB sample for co-moving bolometric range of spectrum are 0.81, 4.07¡Á¡¼10¡½^(-7) and 0.66 respectively. The derived correlations also imply a E_(¦Ã,iso)-E_peak^4 relation that provides physical insight to E_¦Ã-E_peak Ghirlanda correlation. Three scaling coefficients are employed to study these correlations. Monte Carlo statistics indicates that the existing correlations are independent of these constants. For Swift and combined sample 73% - 84.8% successes are recorded. Therefore, it is expected by determining these constants, the tightness of these correlations will further improve. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Physics 2010

abstract: Type Ia supernovae are important, but mysterious cosmological tools. Their standard brightnesses have enabled cosmologists to measure extreme distances and to discover dark energy. However, the nature of their progenitor mechanisms remains elusive, with many competing models offering only partial clues to their origins. Here, type Ia supernova delay times are explored using analytical models. Combined with a new observation technique, this model places new constraints on the characteristic time delay between the formation of stars and the first type Ia supernovae. This derived delay time (500 million years) implies low-mass companions for single degenerate progenitor scenarios. In the latter portions of this dissertation, two progenitor mechanisms are simulated in detail; white dwarf collisions and mergers. From the first of these simulations, it is evident that white dwarf collisions offer a viable and unique pathway to producing type Ia supernovae. Many of the combinations of masses simulated produce sufficient quantities of 56Ni (up to 0.51 solar masses) to masquerade as normal type Ia supernovae. Other combinations of masses produce 56Ni yields that span the entire range of supernova brightnesses, from the very dim and underluminous, with 0.14 solar masses, to the over-bright and superluminous, with up to 1.71 solar masses. The 56Ni yield in the collision simulations depends non-linearly on total system mass, mass ratio, and impact parameter. Using the same numerical tools as in the collisions examination, white dwarf mergers are studied in detail. Nearly all of the simulations produce merger remnants consisting of a cold, degenerate core surrounded by a hot accretion disk. The properties of these disks have strong implications for various viscosity treatments that have attempted to pin down the accretion times. Some mass combinations produce super-Chandrasekhar cores on shorter time scales than viscosity driven accretion. A handful of simulations also exhibit helium detonations on the surface of the primary that bear a resemblance to helium novae. Finally, some of the preliminary groundwork that has been laid for constructing a new numerical tool is discussed. This new tool advances the merger simulations further than any research group has done before, and has the potential to answer some of the lingering questions that the merger study has uncovered. The results of thermal diffusion tests using this tool have a remarkable correspondence to analytical predictions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Astrophysics 2011

The discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets is a leading frontier of science, which is limited by our ability to extract real astrophysical signals masked by systematic noise. In this Thesis I develop techniques for self-calibration in optical astronomy, in both imaging and photometry, applicable both to observations from the ground and for space telescopes, and apply these to searching for exoplanets. Kernel phase interferometry is a method for improving high angular resolution astronomical imaging by cancelling out the effects of the turbulent atmosphere. I derive a generalization, kernel amplitude, to correct also for the effects of scintillation, or twinkling. I go on to demonstrate kernel phase for the first time from the ground using the Palomar Hale 200-Inch Telescope, as a test case for the extreme adaptive optics instruments SPHERE and GPI. The Kepler satellite and its successor, the K2 mission, have been crucial to our understanding both of exoplanets, and via asteroseismology, of stellar physics. The success of K2 depends on correcting for its unstable pointing. Using semi-parametric Bayesian statistical models to overcome this issue, I report the discovery of 145 new transiting planet candidates in data from Campaigns 5 and 6 of the K2 mission. Furthermore, with two novel techniques, 'smear' and 'halo' photometry, which dramatically extend the dynamic range of Kepler and K2, I recover light curves of bright stars that were previously too saturated to study, and definitively detect variability in the seven naked-eye stars in the Pleiades cluster. These new data analysis approaches enable the K2 and TESS space missions to discover planets transiting the nearest and brightest stars, which will be ideal targets for the coming era of exoplanet characterization.

abstract: The first part of this dissertation presents the implementation of Bayesian statistics with galaxy surface luminosity (SL) prior probabilities to improve the ac- curacy of photometric redshifts. The addition of the SL prior probability helps break the degeneracy of spectro-photometric redshifts (SPZs) between low redshift 4000 A break galaxies and high redshift Lyman break galaxies which are mostly catas- trophic outliers. For a sample of 1138 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the GOODS North and South fields at z < 1.6, the application of the surface luminosity prior reduces the fraction of galaxies with redshift deviation sigma(z) > 0.2 from 15.0% to 10.4%. The second part of this dissertation presents the study of the chemical evolution of the star-forming galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) grism Survey effectively selects emission line galaxies (ELGs) to mAB ~ 27. Follow-up Magellan LDSS3+IMACS spectroscopy of the HST/ACS PEARS ELGs confirms an accuracy of sigma_z = 0.006 for the HST/ACS PEARS grism redshifts. The luminosity-metallicity (L-Z) relation and the mass-metallicity (M-Z) relation of the PEARS ELGs at z ~ 0.6 are offset by ~ - 0.8 dex in metallicity for a given rest-frame B absolute magnitude and stellar mass relative to the local relations from SDSS galaxies. The offsets in both relations are ~ - 0.4 dex larger than that given by other samples at same redshifts, which are demonstrated to be due to the selection of different physical properties of the PEARS ELGs: low metallicities, very blue colors, small sizes, compact disturbed morphologies, high SSFR > 10^-9 yr^-1 , and high gas fraction. The downsizing effect, the tidal interacting induced inflow of metal-poor gas, and the SNe driven galactic winds outflows, may account for the significant offset of the PEARS galaxies in the L-Z and the M-Z relations relative to the local relations. The detection of the emission lines of ELGs down to m ~ 26 mag in the HST/ACS PEARS + HST/WCF3 ERS NIR composit grism spectra enables to extend the study of the evolution of the L-Z and M-Z relations to 0.6 < z < 2.4. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Astrophysics 2012

<p> In this dissertation, I explore the time-variable rate of star formation, using both numerical and analytic techniques. I discuss the dynamics of collapsing regions, the effect of protostellar jets, and development of software for use in the hydrodynamic code RAMSES. I perform high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations of star formation in self-gravitating turbulently driven gas. I have run simulations including hydrodynamics (HD), and HD with protostellar jet feedback. Accretion begins when the turbulent fluctuations on largescales, near the driving scale, produce a converging flow. I find that the character of the collapse changes at two radii, the disk radius <i>r_d</i>, and the radius <i>r</i>_* where the enclosed gas mass exceeds the stellar mass. This is the first numerical work to show that the density evolves to a fixed attractor, &rho;(<i>r, t</i>) &rarr; &rho;(<i> r</i>), for <i>r_d</i> &lt; <i>r</i> &lt; <i> r</i>_*; mass flows through this structure onto a sporadically gravitationally unstable disk, and from thence onto the star. The total stellar mass <i>M</i>_*(<i>t</i>) ~ (<i>t &ndash; t</i>_*)², where (<i>t &ndash; t</i>_*)² is the time elapsed since the formation of the first star. This is in agreement with previous numerical and analytic work that suggests a linear rate of star formation. I show that protostellar jets change the normalization of the stellar mass accretion rate, but do not strongly affect the dynamics of star formation in hydrodynamics runs. In particular, <i> M</i>_*(<i>t</i>) &infin; (1 &ndash; <i>f</i>_jet)²(<i>t &ndash; t</i>_*)² is the fraction of mass accreted onto the protostar, where <i> f</i>_jet is the fraction ejected by the jet. For typical values of <i>f</i>_jet ~ 0.1 &ndash; 0.3 the accretion rate onto the star can be reduced by a factor of two or three. However, I find that jets have only a small effect (of order 25%) on the accretion rate onto the protostellar disk (the "raw" accretion rate). In other words, jets do not affect the dynamics of the infall, but rather simply eject mass before it reaches the star. Finally, I show that the small scale structure&mdash;the radial density, velocity, and mass accretion profiles&mdash;are very similar in the jet and no-jet cases.</p><p>