|
This interest is an extension of the work I did
for my doctoral dissertation. It involves CCD phototmety of eclipsing
binary stars with a telescope and analysis of the observed data for the
determination of the light curve elements in conjunction with a popular
computational model in this field, the "Wislon-Divenney" model.
Why this research Interest?
Contact binary stars are examples of close binary stars. In close binary
stars the components are physically so close in space that the evolution of
one affects the evolution of the other. In recent years considerable effort
has been invested in modeling close binary (and in general contact binary)
evolution. Theoretical models are still incapable in providing answers to
many questions such as on mass loss, angular momentum evolution and energy
loss in these systems. The unavailability of good database on these systems
increases our difficulty to tackle these problems.
The reason for the lack of database is not
because there are no stars to study, but rather they are observer related.
In recent years CCD's have advanced considerably giving us the opportunity
to observe these systems with relatively small telescopes. My future
interest in this area is to study judiciously selected systems, that will
provide a source of homogeneous database on contact binary systems and will
be very beneficial in developing good theoretical models.
The role of students:
This type of project is ideal for the beginning students in astronomy as it
particularly deals with learning high quality fundamental observational
astronomy. Students can participate in planning of observing runs,
acquiring and processing the data, analysis of the data with the help of
astrophysical models and computers, and in preparing and publishing the
manuscripts. This will give them training in working with optical
telescopes, CCD cameras, and other scientific instruments. They will also
learn to use relevant software tools such as IRAF, FORTRAN and other
commonly available scientific data analysis packages.
Equipment and Facility:
The development of low cost CCD cameras and fast computers has now made it
possible to study binary stars with relatively small telescopes (10-24
inch) and as such this type of work can be initiated at many different
institution that have small telescope facility.
|
