2023 Schedule

03/07: Sean Linden
30/28: Graham Smith
04/04: Keir Rogers
04/11: Devon Powell
05/02: Josh Samani - running DiversiTea
05/09: Sihao Cheng
05/23: Virginia L Trimble
06/06: Chris Boxe and Kayla Smith

Archives: Fall 2022 Schedule

10/4: Yongda Zhu
10/11: Kendall Sullivan
10/18: Cicero Lu
10/25: Casey Lam
11/1: Sofia Rojas
11/8: Matthew Gent
11/15: Hareesh Bhaskar
11/22: Surajit Kalita
11/29: Keerthi Vasan
12/6:

Archives: Fall 2020 Schedule

Astrophysics Tuesday Lunch Talks will be held virtually via ZOOM for Fall 2020.

Coordinators: Anna Ciurlo, Matt Hosek, Guido Roberts-Borsani

October 13 at 1:00 PM Pacific time
Vince Estrada-Carpenter, Texas A&M
Title: Stellar Populations and Formation Histories of Massive Galaxies Derived from Deep Hubble Space Telescope Grism Data

Abstract: Understanding the correlations between mass, morphology, stellar populations, and formation history in galaxies is difficult, primarily due to the uncertainties in galaxy star-formation histories. Star-formation histories are better constrained for higher redshift galaxies, observed closer to their formation and quenching epochs. These properties in high redshift galaxies can be difficult to do from ground-based telescopes, as they are subject to higher backgrounds and a high density of telluric (night-sky) emission lines. The HST/WFC3 grism grants us access to (low-resolution) rest frame optical spectrum for galaxies at ~ 1 < z < 2. The age and metallicity features present at these wavelengths, along with the sample sizes provided by grism surveys, allow us to better constrain stellar populations and star-formation histories. In my talk, I will discuss research using a forward modeling technique to fit deep HST grism data from the CLEAR (CANDELS Lyα Emission at Reionization) survey. Work which includes studying the mass - stellar metallicity relationship, where we find that massive quiescent galaxies up to a redshift of ~ 1.8 have ~ solar stellar metallicities. As well as a study on the relationship between morphology and formation redshift (when the galaxy formed ~ 50% of their mass) using “non-parametric” star-formation histories, where we find that quiescent galaxies with the highest stellar-mass surface density, log(Σ1) > 10.25, show a minimum formation redshift.

October 6 at 1:00 PM Pacific time
Greg Gilbert, The University of Chicago
Title: The Architectures and Dynamics of Kepler’s Multiplanet Systems

Abstract: Studying the present day architectures and dynamics of high-multiplicity (N ≥ 3) exoplanetary systems provides a unique avenue for probing the astrophysics of planet formation and for constraining exoplanet demographics. Here, I present a new framework for characterizing the arrangements of masses, periods, and mutual inclinations within such systems. I demonstrate that Kepler’s high multiplicity systems can be explained if most systems belong to a single intrinsic population, with a subset of systems hosting additional, undetected planets. I further demonstrate that planets within a system tend to be evenly spaced in log-period and roughly the same size, and that these trends are astrophysical in nature and not an artifact of observational biases. Conclusions regarding planetary inclinations and eccentricities are less clear and require improved transit lightcurve fits to allow for robust inferences. However, accurate transit modeling is confounded by both instrumental and asteroseismic noise, as well as by unresolved transit timing variations (TTVs) and transit duration variations (TDVs) which arise from gravitational interactions between neighboring planets. To remedy this problem, I am currently reprocessing all (~3300) Kepler lightcurves for stars known to host planet candidates. I employ all available short cadence data, using a technique that simultaneously models noise with a Gaussian Process (GP) regression and accounts for both TTVs and TDVs with an optimally flexible parametric model. These timing measurements can be inverted using dynamical models to produce a large statistical sample of planetary masses, filling out the mass-radius diagram. This project will yield the highest-fidelity measurements of TTVs and TDVs produced to date, as well as dramatically improved constraints on planetary inclinations and eccentricities. In the near future, I will extend these methods to every planetary candidate observed by Kepler, K2, and TESS, with an expected yield of nearly 100 previously undetected TTVs/TDVs.

September 29 at 1:00 PM Pacific time
Luke Bouma, Princeton
Title: Two Young Transiting Exoplanets: One Was, One Was Not

Abstract: Over the first 100 million years of their lives, planetary systems undergo major changes. Rocky planetesimals collide. Atmospheres are accreted and lost. Dynamical interactions shape and tilt planetary orbits. After summarizing ongoing observational efforts aimed at discovering young exoplanets, I will motivate and discuss two specific questions. First: what is the youngest hot Jupiter that exists? I will present PTFO 8-8695b, a long-standing 10 Myr old candidate hot Jupiter that is probably a rare class of variable star. Combined with other recent work, the story of PTFO 8-8695b suggests that approximately zero hot Jupiters younger than 100 Myr have been securely identified. The second question is: what can observations teach us about how close-in Neptunian-mass planets form and evolve? This topic will be explored through the discovery and validation of a 40 Myr old Saturn-sized planet, TOI 837b. The planet's host star is bright enough to enable measurements of the stellar obliquity, the planet's mass, and potentially the planet's atmospheric mass loss. These avenues of characterization, broadly applied to the young planets being discovered with TESS and K2, will likely improve our understanding of the processes that produce the observed exoplanet population.


Archives: Winter 2020 Schedule

2/4: Xuheng Ding, UCLA
2/11: Jason Wang, Caltech
2/18: Kristen Larson, Caltech/IPAC
2/25: Ylva Goetberg, Carnegie
3/3: Evan Bauer, UCSB