Transiting Brown Dwarf Links
Current Work
My primary research interests are the detection and characterization of short-period (roughly 1-30 days) transiting brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are objects that are more massive than giant planets and less massive than the smallest stars. They are effectively defined by a mass range (13 to 80 times the mass of Jupiter) and my thesis works involves trying to determine whether of not those mass boundaries make sense. We may instead consider defining brown dwarfs based off of their formation mechanisms and not simply their mass. This involves the precise characterization of their mass and radius so that we may compare these properties to the values predicted by substellar models.
Ultimately, the scope of my thesis will be limited to the detection of transiting brown dwarfs as the current population of these objects has fewer than 30 members (as of 2019). The primary tools used in my work are the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, the Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph (TRES, more on echelle spectrographs here), and the Gaia mission. All three of these missions and instruments provide key components to the measurement of brown dwarf masses and radii.