Browsing by Author "Macri, Lucas M"

Cepheid Variables and their Application to the Cosmological Distance Scale

Hoffmann, Samantha L (2013-05-02)

In the current era of “precision cosmology”, measuring the expansion rate of the Universe (Hubble constant, or H0) more accurately and precisely helps to better constrain the properties of dark energy. Cepheid-based ...

Identifying RR Lyrae Stars in the Dark Energy Survey

Stringer, Katelyn Meredith (2020-04-24)

RR Lyrae are evolved variable stars which act as powerful stellar tracers of Galactic halo structure and satellite galaxies. The Dark Energy Survey (DES), with its deep and wide coverage (g ∼ 24.3 mag in a single exposure; ...

Period-Luminosity Relations of Cepheid and Mira Variables and Their Application to the Extragalactic Distance Scale

Yuan, Wenlong (2017-05-25)

In this dissertation, I present work towards accurate and precise distance determinations using both Cepheids and Miras. The work includes a Cepheid search in the galaxy M101, a study of near-infrared light curves and phase ...

The Precision Analysis of Time Series Photometry and Its Application to Searches for Pre-Main-Sequence Objects

Oelkers, Ryan James (2016-04-27)

The past two decades have seen a significant advancement in the detection, classification and understanding of exoplanets and binary star systems. This is due, in large part, to the increase in use of small aperture ...

Tracking Galaxy Growth During the Past 11 Billion Years with Deep Near Infrared Surveys

Tomczak, Adam Richard (2015-08-05)

Using observations from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE), we obtain the deepest measurements to date of the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) at z < 3. With these data, we find evidence for a steepening of ...