Author
Sophia Brunner
Bio: Sophia Brunner is an academic researcher from University of Virginia. The author has contributed to research in topics: Spectrograph & Observatory. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 8 publications receiving 2271 citations.
Papers
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University of Virginia1, Liverpool John Moores University2, Texas Christian University3, University of La Laguna4, Spanish National Research Council5, Johns Hopkins University6, Sternberg Astronomical Institute7, New Mexico State University8, University of Arizona9, Ohio State University10, Pennsylvania State University11, University of Wisconsin-Madison12, Eötvös Loránd University13, University of Toronto14, University of Michigan15, University of Texas at Austin16, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam17, Yale University18, University of Colorado Boulder19, New York University20, Princeton University21, University of Utah22, Goddard Space Flight Center23, Aarhus University24, University of Birmingham25, Harvard University26, Space Telescope Science Institute27, Computer Sciences Corporation28, Paris Diderot University29, INAF30, Max Planck Society31, Space Science Institute32, Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University33, University of Franche-Comté34, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro35, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis36
TL;DR: In this article, the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (K-119517) and Hungarian National Science Foundation (KNFI) have proposed a method to detect the presence of asteroids in Earth's magnetic field.
Abstract: National Science Foundation [AST-1109178, AST-1616636]; Gemini Observatory; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [AYA-2011-27754]; NASA [NNX12AE17G]; Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Hungarian NKFI of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office [K-119517]; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; National Science Foundation; U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science
1,193 citations
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TL;DR: The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) as discussed by the authors collected a half million high resolution (R~22,500), high S/N (>100), infrared (1.51-1.70 microns) spectra for 146,000 stars, with time series information via repeat visits to most of these stars.
Abstract: The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), one of the programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), has now completed its systematic, homogeneous spectroscopic survey sampling all major populations of the Milky Way. After a three year observing campaign on the Sloan 2.5-m Telescope, APOGEE has collected a half million high resolution (R~22,500), high S/N (>100), infrared (1.51-1.70 microns) spectra for 146,000 stars, with time series information via repeat visits to most of these stars. This paper describes the motivations for the survey and its overall design---hardware, field placement, target selection, operations---and gives an overview of these aspects as well as the data reduction, analysis and products. An index is also given to the complement of technical papers that describe various critical survey components in detail. Finally, we discuss the achieved survey performance and illustrate the variety of potential uses of the data products by way of a number of science demonstrations, which span from time series analysis of stellar spectral variations and radial velocity variations from stellar companions, to spatial maps of kinematics, metallicity and abundance patterns across the Galaxy and as a function of age, to new views of the interstellar medium, the chemistry of star clusters, and the discovery of rare stellar species. As part of SDSS-III Data Release 12, all of the APOGEE data products are now publicly available.
981 citations
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University of Virginia1, University of Arizona2, Princeton University3, Johns Hopkins University4, New Mexico State University5, Ames Research Center6, Ohio State University7, Carnegie Institution for Science8, University of Florida9, University of Texas at Austin10, Spanish National Research Council11, Texas Christian University12
TL;DR: The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) as mentioned in this paper uses a dedicated 300-fiber, narrow-band (1.5-1.7 micron) near-infrared spectrograph to survey approximately 100,000 giant stars across the Milky Way.
Abstract: The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) will use a dedicated 300-fiber, narrow-band
(1.5-1.7 micron), high resolution (R~30,000), near-infrared spectrograph to survey approximately 100,000 giant stars
across the Milky Way. This survey, conducted as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS III), will revolutionize
our understanding of kinematical and chemical enrichment histories of all Galactic stellar populations. The instrument,
currently in fabrication, will be housed in a separate building adjacent to the 2.5 m SDSS telescope and fed light via
approximately 45-meter fiber runs from the telescope. The instrument design includes numerous technological
challenges and innovations including a gang connector that allows simultaneous connection of all fibers with a single
plug to a telescope cartridge that positions the fibers on the sky, numerous places in the fiber train in which focal ratio
degradation must be minimized, a large (290 mm x 475 mm elliptically-shaped recorded area) mosaic-VPH, an f/1.4 sixelement
refractive camera featuring silicon and fused silica elements with diameters as large as 393 mm, three near-within a custom, LN2-cooled, stainless steel vacuum cryostat with dimensions 1.4 m x 2.3 m x 1.3 m.
165 citations
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University of Virginia1, Pennsylvania State University2, New Mexico State University3, Harvard University4, Princeton University5, Johns Hopkins University6, University of Colorado Boulder7, University of Wisconsin-Madison8, New York University9, University of Washington10, University of Antofagasta11, Carnegie Institution for Science12, University of La Serena13, Universities Space Research Association14, University of Arizona15, Case Western Reserve University16, University of California, Santa Cruz17, Ohio State University18, Liverpool John Moores University19, Ames Research Center20, Moscow State University21, Vanderbilt University22, Northern Kentucky University23, Massachusetts Institute of Technology24, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign25, Columbia University26, University of Texas at Austin27, Georgia Institute of Technology28, University of Florida29
TL;DR: The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) as mentioned in this paper is a survey of ~ 10^5 red giant stars that systematically sampled all Milky Way populations (bulge, disk, and halo) to study the Galaxy's chemical and kinematical history.
Abstract: We describe the design and performance of the near-infrared (1.51--1.70 micron), fiber-fed, multi-object (300 fibers), high resolution (R = lambda/delta lambda ~ 22,500) spectrograph built for the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). APOGEE is a survey of ~ 10^5 red giant stars that systematically sampled all Milky Way populations (bulge, disk, and halo) to study the Galaxy's chemical and kinematical history. It was part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) from 2011 -- 2014 using the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico. The APOGEE-2 survey is now using the spectrograph as part of SDSS-IV, as well as a second spectrograph, a close copy of the first, operating at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Although several fiber-fed, multi-object, high resolution spectrographs have been built for visual wavelength spectroscopy, the APOGEE spectrograph is one of the first such instruments built for observations in the near-infrared. The instrument's successful development was enabled by several key innovations, including a "gang connector" to allow simultaneous connections of 300 fibers; hermetically sealed feedthroughs to allow fibers to pass through the cryostat wall continuously; the first cryogenically deployed mosaic volume phase holographic grating; and a large refractive camera that includes mono-crystalline silicon and fused silica elements with diameters as large as ~ 400 mm. This paper contains a comprehensive description of all aspects of the instrument including the fiber system, optics and opto-mechanics, detector arrays, mechanics and cryogenics, instrument control, calibration system, optical performance and stability, lessons learned, and design changes for the second instrument.
165 citations
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University of Virginia1, Harvard University2, Princeton University3, New Mexico State University4, Ohio State University5, Johns Hopkins University6, University of Arizona7, University of Washington8, University of Colorado Boulder9, Ames Research Center10, Carnegie Institution for Science11, University of Texas at Austin12, Spanish National Research Council13, Texas Christian University14, University of Florida15, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory16, New York University17, Pennsylvania State University18
TL;DR: The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) uses a dedicated 300-fiber, narrow-band near-infrared spectrograph to survey approximately 100,000 giant stars across the Milky Way.
Abstract: The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) uses a dedicated 300-fiber, narrow-band
near-infrared (1.51-1.7 μm), high resolution (R~22,500) spectrograph to survey approximately 100,000 giant stars across
the Milky Way. This three-year survey, in operation since late-summer 2011 as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III
(SDSS III), will revolutionize our understanding of the kinematical and chemical enrichment histories of all Galactic
stellar populations. We present the performance of the instrument from its first year in operation. The instrument is
housed in a separate building adjacent to the 2.5-m SDSS telescope and fed light via approximately 45-meter fiber runs
from the telescope. The instrument design includes numerous innovations including a gang connector that allows
simultaneous connection of all fibers with a single plug to a telescope cartridge that positions the fibers on the sky,
numerous places in the fiber train in which focal ratio degradation had to be minimized, a large mosaic-VPH (290 mm x
475 mm elliptically-shaped recorded area), an f/1.4 six-element refractive camera featuring silicon and fused silica
elements with diameters as large as 393 mm, three near-infrared detectors mounted in a 1 x 3 mosaic with sub-pixel
translation capability, and all of these components housed within a custom, LN2-cooled, stainless steel vacuum cryostat
with dimensions 1.4-m x 2.3-m x 1.3-m.
92 citations
Cited by
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TL;DR: In this paper, a Monte Carlo sampler (The Joker) is used to perform a search for companions to 96,231 red-giant stars observed in the APOGEE survey (DR14) with $ ≥ 3$ spectroscopic epochs.
Abstract: Multi-epoch radial velocity measurements of stars can be used to identify stellar, sub-stellar, and planetary-mass companions. Even a small number of observation epochs can be informative about companions, though there can be multiple qualitatively different orbital solutions that fit the data. We have custom-built a Monte Carlo sampler (The Joker) that delivers reliable (and often highly multi-modal) posterior samplings for companion orbital parameters given sparse radial-velocity data. Here we use The Joker to perform a search for companions to 96,231 red-giant stars observed in the APOGEE survey (DR14) with $\\geq 3$ spectroscopic epochs. We select stars with probable companions by making a cut on our posterior belief about the amplitude of the stellar radial-velocity variation induced by the orbit. We provide (1) a catalog of 320 companions for which the stellar companion properties can be confidently determined, (2) a catalog of 4,898 stars that likely have companions, but would require more observations to uniquely determine the orbital properties, and (3) posterior samplings for the full orbital parameters for all stars in the parent sample. We show the characteristics of systems with confidently determined companion properties and highlight interesting systems with candidate compact object companions.
2,564 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, a Monte Carlo sampler (The Joker) is used to perform a search for companions to 96,231 red-giant stars observed in the APOGEE survey (DR14) with $3$ spectroscopic epochs.
Abstract: Multi-epoch radial velocity measurements of stars can be used to identify stellar, sub-stellar, and planetary-mass companions. Even a small number of observation epochs can be informative about companions, though there can be multiple qualitatively different orbital solutions that fit the data. We have custom-built a Monte Carlo sampler (The Joker) that delivers reliable (and often highly multi-modal) posterior samplings for companion orbital parameters given sparse radial-velocity data. Here we use The Joker to perform a search for companions to 96,231 red-giant stars observed in the APOGEE survey (DR14) with $\geq 3$ spectroscopic epochs. We select stars with probable companions by making a cut on our posterior belief about the amplitude of the stellar radial-velocity variation induced by the orbit. We provide (1) a catalog of 320 companions for which the stellar companion properties can be confidently determined, (2) a catalog of 4,898 stars that likely have companions, but would require more observations to uniquely determine the orbital properties, and (3) posterior samplings for the full orbital parameters for all stars in the parent sample. We show the characteristics of systems with confidently determined companion properties and highlight interesting systems with candidate compact object companions.
1,637 citations
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Michael R. Blanton1, Matthew A. Bershady2, Bela Abolfathi3, Franco D. Albareti4 +412 more•Institutions (91)
TL;DR: SDSS-IV as mentioned in this paper is a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs: the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA), the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), and the Time Domain Spectroscopy Survey (TDSS).
Abstract: We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July.
1,200 citations
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University of Virginia1, Liverpool John Moores University2, Texas Christian University3, Spanish National Research Council4, University of La Laguna5, Johns Hopkins University6, Sternberg Astronomical Institute7, New Mexico State University8, University of Arizona9, Ohio State University10, Pennsylvania State University11, University of Wisconsin-Madison12, Eötvös Loránd University13, University of Toronto14, University of Michigan15, University of Texas at Austin16, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam17, Yale University18, University of Colorado Boulder19, New York University20, Princeton University21, University of Utah22, Goddard Space Flight Center23, Aarhus University24, University of Birmingham25, Harvard University26, Space Telescope Science Institute27, Computer Sciences Corporation28, Paris Diderot University29, INAF30, Max Planck Society31, Space Science Institute32, Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University33, University of Franche-Comté34, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro35, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis36
TL;DR: In this article, the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (K-119517) and Hungarian National Science Foundation (KNFI) have proposed a method to detect the presence of asteroids in Earth's magnetic field.
Abstract: National Science Foundation [AST-1109178, AST-1616636]; Gemini Observatory; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [AYA-2011-27754]; NASA [NNX12AE17G]; Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Hungarian NKFI of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office [K-119517]; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; National Science Foundation; U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science
1,193 citations
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Bela Abolfathi1, D. S. Aguado2, Gabriela Aguilar3, Carlos Allende Prieto2 +361 more•Institutions (94)
TL;DR: SDSS-IV is the fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and has been in operation since 2014 July. as discussed by the authors describes the second data release from this phase, and the 14th from SDSS overall (making this Data Release Fourteen or DR14).
Abstract: The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since 2014 July. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the 14th from SDSS overall (making this Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes the data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (2014-2016 July) public. Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey; the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data-driven machine-learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from the SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS web site (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020 and will be followed by SDSS-V.
965 citations