Conferences & workshops

#pyastro15

/ Coding & computing, Conferences & workshops

This week I’m participating in the Python in Astronomy workshop at the Lorentz Center in Leiden. It is the greatest workshop/conference/unconference I’ve been to, and it’s only day 3 out of 5. I’ve been developing my git and github skills, and submitted my first pull request (i.e., open-source code contribution) yesterday to SunPy! For this afternoon some of us are planning to sit down and try to hammer out the basics of an astroquery HEASARC module for downloading data from NASA’s HEASARC database!

You can follow along with the hashtag #pyastro15

A note on the twitter hashtag feed: I know that abbreviations can be frustrating for those not at the conference or new to the topics. This being said, twitter inherently does not lend itself to verbosity. If you’re trying to follow along and are getting lost in tweets densely packed with abbreviations and acronyms, please reply and request clarification!

Also, you’ll probably find that some people are tweeting with the hashtag more for non-attendees, and some are aiming their tweets at fellow attendees (I admit I tend to be in the latter camp). You may find it less frustrating to follow a few specific people and not everything from the hashtag.

Dublin on Sunday for The X-ray Universe 2014!

/ Academia, Conferences & workshops

XMM-Newton X-ray Universe 2014 Dublin poster
Below are my title and abstract for The X-ray Universe 2014 in Dublin. I’ll also be live-tweeting! Looking forward to a great week 🙂

 

A New Route to Phase-Resolved Spectroscopy of Pulsations and QPOs in X-ray Binaries

The accretion disks in neutron star and stellar-mass black hole X-ray binaries provide an opportunity to study matter in strong gravitational fields. In particular, using spectral-timing measurements of X-ray emission, we can analyze the inner parts of the accretion disk and corona. Here we present the application of a new spectral-timing technique to carry out phase-resolved spectroscopy of rapid periodic and quasi-periodic signals from X-ray binaries. This technique measures relative phase and does not require ephemerides or exactly periodic signals, so it is applicable to a wide range of data, from X-ray millisecond pulsations to kHz and low-frequency QPOs. The method gives new insight into the physical mechanisms underlying these signals as well as the geometry of the emitting regions.

FGSR Kaplan Graduate Student Award

/ Conferences & workshops

My attendance at CASCA 2013 was funded by the J. Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award from the U. Alberta Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR). I didn’t know that I had received the award at the time of the conference, but this is me publicly acknowledging the award for travel assistance! Thank you, FGSR!

CASCA 2013!

/ Conferences & workshops

I’m excited to be at CASCA at UBC this week! Follow the festivities on twitter with #cascaUBC. For those interested, my talk is Wednesday in Session 10 (Compact Objects) at ~11:15am in Hennings 202.

Using X-ray Light Curves to Constrain the Neutron Star Equation of State

The equation of state for ultra-dense matter has puzzled astrophysicists for decades. This is because the conditions of ultra-dense matter, such as those found in neutron stars, are not terrestrially replicable. X-ray light curves from low-mass X-ray binary systems, with neutron star primaries, have proven to be useful tools in the study of the neutron star equation of state. Theory predicts that the X-ray light curve resulting from a Type I X-ray burst on the surface of a rapidly rotating neutron star can be used to determine the characteristics of the burst ignition spot and place constraints on the neutron star’s mass and radius. We discuss the development of spherical and oblate neutron star models that, providing parameter values, yield an X-ray light curve comparable to that which would be measured by an X-ray timing telescope like RXTE. This simulation code, used with a genetic fitting algorithm, will provide us with an opportunity to disentangle the effects of various aspects of the neutron star and hotspot on the outputted light curve, showing which parameter degeneracies will have the greatest impact on the observable.