Research
Precision Radial Velocities
I primarily search for exoplanets with the radial velocity (RV) technique. Planets do not orbit a stationary star, but rather all bodies orbit around the center of mass of the entire system. In our own Solar System, the Sun undergoes a maximum velocity change of ~25 m/s, primarily due to the orbit of Jupiter, the most massive planet in our Solar System. Such changes in a star's apparent velocity along our line of sight can be measured via Doppler spectroscopy. Significant periods in these changes correspond to the effective year for the candidate perturber (which may be a planet!), and the relative amplitude of the maximum velocity change can be used to measure the mass of the object. Searching for planets around K and M dwarfs in particular provides a potential shortcut to finding habitable zone worlds.
I specifically develop a set of Julia and Python codes to generate and model the Doppler velocities from a variety of facilities, including: