I am a graduate student in astrophysics at Princeton University. My research interests include extrasolar planet detection and characterization, large surveys, and statistical modeling. I'm currently working on commissioning of the Prime Focus Spectrograph and developing methods for spatially resolved dust mapping in deep field images. Some recent projects are listed below.
Misalignments between planetary orbits and the equatorial planes of their host stars are clues about the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Earlier work found some evidence for a peak near 90° in the distribution of stellar obliquities. We investigated whether this trend is significant and quantified the role played by observation biases.
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As radial velocity instruments approach the precision level necessary to detect an Earth-twin, stellar activity continues to induce significant noise and even planet-like signals. We developed a robust python package for extracting line-by-line radial velocity measurements; compared to standard techniques, the line-by-line approach offers considerable flexibility in the removal of stellar noise. We are now focused on connecting our knowledge of stellar atmospheres with efforts to mitigate stellar activity.
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Planet masses have typically been inferred via radial velocity (RV) measurements of the host star or time-series modeling of transit timing variations (TTVs) in multiplanet systems; however, the majority of Kepler hosts are too dim for RV follow-up, and only a select number of systems have strong enough TTVs for time-series modeling. We developed a method of constraining planet mass in multiplanet systems using low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) TTVs.
With Leslie Rogers of the University of Chicago
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