Seminar by Jack Lubin, UCLA
Current techniques for measuring a star’s rotational velocity (vsini) become untrustworthy below ~2.5 km/s, preventing study of Sun-like stars (vsini = 1.9 km/s). I begin with a study of macroturbulence, the primary inhibitor to measuring slow vsini. Then I present efforts to build a data-driven model to measure slow vsini precisely and describe the scientific avenues that this tool will open up. Next I introduce the KPF-Community Cadence (KPF-CC) program, which is bringing a queue-based observing mode to the classically scheduled Keck Observatory. As the Project Scientist, I have developed the core automated scheduling algorithm, which replaces human efforts and produces mathematically optimal schedules for entire 6 month semesters in just 120 seconds. I show the details of the algorithm, which can be applied easily to any observatory, and show the infrastructure supporting the algorithm that we have built to make the PIs interaction with the queue simple and easy.
Host: Jane Huang