Current Projects
Dr. Judi Provencal
Kaylee Grace (she/they)
Kaylee is currently studying pulsating helium atmosphere white dwarfs on the hot edge of the DBV instability strip. The location of the hot edge of the strip is unknown after the discovery of hot pulsator PG 0112+104. Using HST spectra of these hot DBs, Kaylee aims to determine their effective temperatures and surface gravities to determine the location of the blue edge. She also takes ground based observations of a number of DB/DBVs, including GD 358. Combining 35 years of archival data with three years of TESS data and recent ground-based data taken by herself and collaborators she is working to create updated asteroseismic and spectral models of the star. She is also working to create a new, Python-based aperture photometry package as a successor to Maestro.
Zach Savery (he/him)
Zach’s research is currently focused on studying the DAV pulsating white dwarf, G29-38. G29-38 is an interesting object for not only being a pulsating white dwarf, but it’s also one of the first white dwarfs with a known debris disk. This research has involved studying ground and spaced-based optical lightcurves of G29-38, spanning from 1975 to 2023. The ground-based observations have involved the use of the Mount Cuba Observatory, the SARA Observatories, and PJMO, among many others. The space-based observations have been made by TESS.
Evelyn Palmer
Evelyn is a junior undergraduate student at the University of Delaware interested in both ends of the white dwarf pulsators - hot PG 1159 stars, and the red edge of the hydrogen atmosphere white dwarf instability strip.
Ben Kaiser
Ben is a junio undergraduate student at the University of Delaware picking up Millie Dill's thesis work. He studies two pulsating hydrogen atmosphere pulsating white dwarfs, HL Tau 76 and EC 14012-1446, and plans to use their rich pulsational histories to asteroseismologically model them. He is also leading the project to upload the entire Whole Earth Telescope archive to MAST.
Caitlyn Mattison
Caitlyn is a sophomore undergraduate student at the University of Delaware studying known pulsating hydrogen white dwarf with a debris disk V* KX Dra. She is analyzing available TESS data as well as her own observations with the end goal of carrying out an asteroseismological analysis of the white dwarf.