picture

Donald G. York

Horace B. Horton Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago

Ph.D., Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 1971
 
Contact Information
Phone: (773) 702-8930
Location: ERC 577
Email: donoddjob.uchicago.edu

 
Research
York's current research interests include: discerning the location of the gas absorption lines seen in high redshift QSOs, determining the element abundances as a function of cosmic time and searching for very large molecules in local interstellar material.

Research in Don York's group focuses on diffuse material in our Universe. Included in the focus are the origins of intergalactic material, the origin of elements in high-redshift galaxies and interstellar material in the disk and halo of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud (the two closest star-forming galaxies).

Progress in all these fields is closely tied to progress in understanding interstellar gas and dust in our own Milky Way galaxy. We are especially involved in determining the physical properties of Galactic diffuse interstellar clouds, the abundances and origins of the elements, the identification of non-terrestrial molecules in diffuse interstellar clouds, the Galactic environment of the Sun and the boundary conditions of the heliosphere.

In its journey through space, the Sun actually interacts with interstellar clouds. An important focus is understanding the physical properties of nearby interstellar clouds, which is critical to understanding the history of the solar journey through space.

These research projects require the use of Hubble Space Telescope, large and small ground based telescopes, and, suprisingly, spacecraft in situ meaurements of interstellar matter in the solar system with data from a range of space craft.

York's research deals with the dust and gas between the stars (the Galactic interstellar medium) and the same material in high redshift galaxies (the intergalactic medium, so called because we cannot see the galaxies themselves). Studies of local, Galactic material, where the physics can be studied in more detail, are used to develop techniques for studying galaxies at high redshifts.

Past Scientific Projects: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

 
KICP Publications
2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002


Latest Journal Publications
  1. "The Multi-object, Fiber-fed Spectrographs for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 146, Issue 2, article id. 32, 40 pp. (2013) (Aug 2013)
  2. "Anomalous Diffuse Interstellar Bands in the Spectrum of Herschel 36. II. Analysis of Radiatively Excited CH+, CH, and Diffuse Interstellar Bands", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 773, Issue 1, article id. 42, 10 pp. (2013) (Aug 2013)
  3. "Anomalous Diffuse Interstellar Bands in the Spectrum of Herschel 36. I. Observations of Rotationally Excited CH and CH+ Absorption and Strong, Extended Redward Wings on Several DIBs", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 773, Issue 1, article id. 41, 18 pp. (2013) (Aug 2013)
  4. "The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search. VI. Constraints on Dark Energy and the Evolution of Massive Galaxies", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 143, Issue 5, article id. 120, 14 pp. (2012) (May 2012)
  5. "The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search. V. Final Catalog from the Seventh Data Release", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 143, Issue 5, article id. 119, 15 pp. (2012) (May 2012)
  6. "Erratum: Baryon acoustic oscillations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 galaxy sample", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 417, Issue 4, pp. 3101-3102 (Nov 2011)
  7. "Erratum: Cosmological constraints from the clustering of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 luminous red galaxies", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 417, Issue 4, pp. 3103-3104 (Nov 2011)
  8. "Galaxy Clustering in the Completed SDSS Redshift Survey: The Dependence on Color and Luminosity", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 736, Issue 1, article id. 59, 30 pp. (2011) (Jul 2011)
  9. "First-year SDSS-II SN results (Kessler+, 2009)", VizieR On-line Data Catalog: J/ApJS/185/32. Originally published in: 2009ApJS..185...32K (Mar 2011)
  10. "The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search. IV. Statistical Lens Sample from the Fifth Data Release", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 140, Issue 2, article id. 403-415 (2010) (Aug 2010)
  11. "The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog. V. Seventh Data Release", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 139, Issue 6, article id. 2360, pp. (2010) (Jun 2010)
  12. "The SDSS-DR7 quasar catalog (Schneider+, 2010)", VizieR On-line Data Catalog: VII/260. Originally published in: 2010AJ....139.2360S (May 2010)
  13. "Cosmological constraints from the clustering of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 luminous red galaxies", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 404, Issue 1, pp. 60-85 (May 2010)
  14. "Baryon acoustic oscillations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 galaxy sample", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 401, Issue 4, pp. 2148-2168 (Feb 2010)
  15. "First-Year Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Results: Hubble Diagram and Cosmological Parameters", The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, Volume 185, Issue 1, pp. 32-84 (2009) (Nov 2009)
  16. "The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey", The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, Volume 182, Issue 2, article id. 543-558 (2009) (Jun 2009)
  17. "Visualization of large scale structure from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey", New Journal of Physics, Volume 10, Issue 12, pp. 125015 (2008) (Dec 2008)
  18. "A Measurement of the Rate of Type Ia Supernovae at Redshift z ~ 0.1 from the First Season of the SDSS-II Supernova Survey", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 682, Issue 1, pp. 262-282 (Jul 2008)
  19. "Two More Candidate AM Canum Venaticorum (am CVn) Binaries from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 135, Issue 6, pp. 2108-2113 (2008) (Jun 2008)
  20. "First-Year Spectroscopy for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 135, Issue 5, pp. 1766-1784 (2008) (May 2008)

Latest Conference Proceedings
  1. "CH^+ Spectrum and Diffuse Interstellar Bands Toward Herschel 36 Excited by Dust Emission", 67th International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy, held 18-22 June, 2012 at Ohio State University. Abstract id. #WH07 (Jun 2012)
  2. "Status Report on the SDSS-II Supernova Survey", American Astronomical Society Meeting 206, #15.07 (May 2005)
  3. "The SDSS Supernova Survey", American Astronomical Society Meeting 205, #120.01 (Dec 2004)
  4. "First results from the SDSS Supernova Survey", American Astronomical Society Meeting 205, #114.04 (Dec 2004)

 
Visitors
Past Visitors:
  1. Douglas MacMynowski, California Institute of Technology (2008)