Research Projects
UV Contraints on the Struve-Sahade Effect
The Struve-Sahade is the strengthening and weakening of the absoprtion lines of spectroscopic binaries as the stars aproach and recede. This project was conducted as a senior project during my final year at the College of Charleston. Here is a link to the abstract for the iPoster presented at AAS 241 by my advisor Dr. L. Penny.
Rotational Velocities of O and B stars
We aimed to determine the correlatation between the width of a star's CCF peak and the rotational velocity of the star. We used spectra from O and B stars with known vsinis from HST and cross-correlated them with non-rotating TLUSTY synthetic stellar spectra and measured the width of the peak to try and estimate the rotational velpcities of massive stars. The link to the abstract for the iPoster presented at AAS 241.
Imaging the Coolest Rapid Rotators
This is an ongoing part of my dissertation work at Georgia State University. We are targeting rapidly rotating F stars with the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array to image the surfaces of these stars. Images of these stars will allow us to determine the structure of rpaidly rotating stars and convection in hot stars. Click here to find my presentation from the 2025 CHARA Meeting discussing this project (first half of the presenation).
The Search for Pole-on Rapid Rotators
This is an ongoing part of my dissertation work at Georgia State University. Using the SMARTS/CTIO 1.5m telescope with the CHIRON echelle spectrograph, we are trying to find stars that have similar spectral line profiles to that of known pole-on rapid rotator Vega. Click here to find my presentation from the 2025 CHARA Meeting discussing this project (second half of the presenation). Keep an eye out for Kane et al. 2026 to read more about the search for nearly pole-on rapidly rotating stars, and in particular the A1Va star beta PsA.