Multiwavelength view of the nearest starburst galaxy, M82, including gamma-ray detections with VERITAS and the Fermi LAT.
My research over the past five years has focused on understanding the origin of the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background (IGRB). Extragalactic gamma-ray sources too faint to be individually resolved are a guaranteed component of the IGRB, and unresolved Galactic sources as well as truly diffuse processes must also contribute at some level. I initially approached this problem by searching for new extragalactic gamma-ray source populations such starburst galaxies, galaxy clusters, and radio-quiet AGN in order to constrain their IGRB contributions. Along the way, I also became interested in the physics of cosmic rays in the interstellar and intergalactic medium. Our findings suggested that the gamma-ray output of non-AGN galaxies is related to their star-formation activity -- which connected my interest in the IGRB to the cosmological evolution of galaxies. I am currently affiliated with both the Fermi-LAT and NuSTAR collaborations and continue to work on characterizing the IGRB as well as constituent extragalactic source populations.
I am excited to join the KICP to begin work on the Dark Energy Survey (DES), which will feature observations of over 100 million galaxies as part of an ensemble of studies concerning the accelerating expansion of the Universe.
kicp.uchicago.edu
Overview