Fall 2021 UGRAs

Casey Carlile

Title: Merger Signatures of Cold Quasars in the Distant Universe

With their increased amount of star formation, Cold Quasars could be a newly discovered step in quasar evolution. For her project, Casey will analyze images of Cold Quasars in the Hubble CANDELS field to look for signs of recent galaxy mergers which could indicate that Cold Quasars are triggered by the collisions of massive galaxies and are at an earlier stage of quasar evolution than blue quasars.

Casey is a senior Astronomy major graduating in December of 2021. She is also a member of Dr. Allison Kirkpatrick's AGNerds research group.

Anika Goel

Title: Measuring Eddington Ratio in Unobscured Quasars

Anika will calculate the efficiency of energy production in a large, statistical sample of unobscured quasars accretion rate through a physical parameter called the Eddington ratio.Anika will also compare the Eddington ratios with the optical colors of the galaxies, specifically by making color diagrams which tells us about star formation rates. The results will allow us to determine whether the energy output of unobscured quasars correlates with star formation rate.

Anika is a sophomore at the University of Kansas double majoring in Astronomy and Visual Arts with minors in Art History and Physics. Anika has been working in Dr. Kirkpatrick ‘s research group since January 2020!