X-Raying%20the%20Hot%20Universe%20John%20P.%20Hughes%20Rutgers%20University

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X-Raying the Hot UniverseJohn P. HughesRutgers
University

• Astrophysical Studies of Supernova Remnants and
  Clusters of Galaxies

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Group Members

• Jack Hughes at RU since Sept 1996 (PhD Columbia)
  SNRs and CoGs
• Carlos Badenes post-doc (PhD Barcelona) SNRs
• Gamil Cassam-Chenai post-doc (PhD Saclay) SNRs
• Jessica Warren grad student (Vassar) SNRs
• Neelima Sehgal grad student (Yale) CoGs
• External Collaborators Harvard-Smithsonian
  Center for Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State
  University, Princeton University, University of
  Pennsylvania, Univeristy of California, Davis.

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Job Prospects

• Recent RU astronomy PhD graduates obtained jobs
  in industry, teaching colleges, NASA centers,
  academic post-docs, and research universities
• http//www.physics.rutgers.edu/ast/group-ast.html
• American Astronomical Society Career Services
• http//www.aas.org/career/index.htm

This figure shows the number of new job postings
each month in the AAS Job Register. There has
been a steady growth in the number of new jobs
advertised, nearly doubling every five years
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Principal Facilities Used

• Chandra X-ray Observatory
• NASA Great Observatory
• Launched 23 July 1999
• First (and only) X-ray telescope with 1 angular
  resolution
• Nominal 10 year lifetime

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Principal Facilities Used (cont.)

• XMM-Newton
• ESA X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission
• Launched 10 December 1999
• Large collecting area
• Nominal 10 year lifetime

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Principal Facilities Used (cont.)

• Ground-based facilities such as the Cerro Tololo
  Inter-American Obs.
• Optical telescopes of the US National Observatory
• 4-m, 1.5-m imaging and spectroscopy

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Recent SNR Science Highlights
J. S. Warren, J.P. Hughes, et al. 2005, Cosmic
Ray Acceleration at the Forward Shock in Tycho's
Supernova Remnant Evidence from Chandra X-ray
Observations, ApJ, 634, 376.
J.P. Hughes, C.E. Rakowski, D.N. Burrows, and
P.O. Slane 2000, Nucleosynthesis and Mixing in
Cassiopeia A, ApJL, 528, L109.
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On-going CoG Projects

• Chandra and XMM-Newton Observations of the Deep
  Lens Survey (DLS) Shear-Selected Cluster Survey

Hubble Space Telescope
Deep Lens Survey/NOAO
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Gravitational Lensing

• Gravity bends light - a consequence of General
  Relativity

• Strong lensing
• Arcs, multiple images

• Weak lensing
• Statistical effect average over many randomly
  aligned background galaxies

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Mass-Selected Clusters

• Deep Lens Survey (DLS) over 20 deg2 could find
  up to 100 such clusters!

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• First year Survey
• Wittman et al 2006, ApJ, in press. (Detections
  and follow-up)
• Hughes et al 2006, ApJL, in prep. (Luminosity
  vs. temperature correlation)

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Imminent Projects (SNRs)

• Deep Chandra observations
• Cas A 1 million second observation (in hand)
• Kepler and G292.01.8 to be observed this year
• Tycho being proposed for observation next year
• Accepted XMM-Newton observation
• 60 kilosec observation of young pulsar (135 ms
  period) in G292.01.8

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Imminent Projects (CoGs)

• Atacama Cosmology Telescope Survey for CoGs
  using the Cosmic Microwave Background with a
  custom built telescope and camera to be sited in
  Chile.
• First observations expected later this year
• Survey continues through 2007 and 2008
• Main collaborators Princeton (camera) and the
  Univ. of Pennsylvania (telescope)
• Rutgers role follow-up optical studies using the
  Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and X-ray
  studies with Chandra and XMM-Newton

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SALT
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Longer Timescale Projects

• Southern African Large Telescope RU has 10 of
  observing time on this 11-m telescope (one of the
  largest in the world)
• First light in Sept 2004
• Scientifically useful observations beginning
  later this year
• Suzaku US/Japanese X-ray spectroscopy satellite
  (launched Aug 2005), involves visit(s) to Japan
• Constellation X-Facility NASA follow-on mission
  to Chandra with much more collecting area and
  high spectral resolution (post 2010)

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Summary

• Well-defined, interesting thesis projects
• Financial support from NASA and NSF
• Good long term prognosis for astrophysics
  research in the US