Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
The 4-telescope array of VERITAS in Tuscan, AZ. Source
I started working in Dr. Jodi Christiansen’s lab at the beginning of my third year at Cal Poly. I am really interested in a physics-based career path, so this was an amazing opportunity to get involved with undergraduate research work.
Our group is a part of the research collaboration that analyzes data from the VERITAS Telescope, specifically the spectra of blazars and other high energy extragalactic sources.
When I first started most of my time was spent getting comfortable with the linux terminal and learning the physics behind gamma-ray astronomy. My main task during the year was to use our computing system to analyze 3 potential blazars. There are multiple stages of the computational analysis that need to be performed, which required a very organized directory system and documentation method in order to not mess up. Each analysis gave a spectrum and a sky map that allowed us to determine the significance of each source. As more data was collected and our analysis parameters were optimized, we could see the improvements both visually and quantitatively. In May 2024, the 5 other students in our group and I presented our findings in a poster at the Bailey College Student Research Conference.
I learned lot during this year, both from the physics side and the research side. We use concepts including synchrotron self-Compton, Cherenkov radition, doppler effect, and other optical and astronomical phenomena to interpret our results. On the research side, I’ve used a linux terminal, performed fits on my spectra in MATLAB, and created a research poster, among other things. I plan on returning after I return from studying abroad.