Cataclysmic Variables
Dr. Matt Wood
Dr. Wood and his group study the close interacting binary systems known as cataclysmic variables. Containing a main-sequence star losing mass to a white dwarf star, these systems are observed to display a wide variety of variability from classical nova outbursts, to disk oscillations known as superhumps, to smaller dwarf nova outbursts and flickering behavior. Wood's group studies cataclysmic variables through both observational and numerical means.
Student Opportunities
Students may either analyze existing large multi-site data sets either from the professional-amateur collaboration Center for Backyard Astrophysics or the NASA Kepler Mission. The student will also take and analyze data using our campus telescope and/or one or more of the three 1-m class SARA telescopes located at premier observing sites around the globe. Alternatively, students interested in numerical astrophysics may choose to model accretion disk dynamics using our smoothed particle hydrodynamics code.
What You Will Do
The student will read the literature provided to learn the field of cataclysmic variables and astrophysical motivation for the proposed research. The student pursuing an observational project will learn how to obtain time series data using our telescopes, including the required calibration images. The student will learn how to reduce the data to obtain a time series file (“light curve”) containing times and measured brightnesses, and then how to analyze these data to obtain the Fourier transforms (indicating periods present), average pulse shapes, O-C phase diagrams, etc. The student will write a paper and present his or her results orally by the end of the program. A theoretical student will spend his or her time learning the methods of numerical simulation and then developing and running codes to simulate the dynamics of accretion disks or related phenomena.