Bachelor-, Masterarbeiten & Projektpraktika -
Bachelor and Master thesis, physics practicals
Master thesis - Masterarbeiten
Cluster environment of high-redshift active galactic nuclei: In the local Universe, the most luminous
and massive active galactic nuclei are found in the centers of the most massive galaxy clusters.
Thus investigating the cluster environment allows one to study the structure formation of massive
entities at early epochs. In this master thesis very deep high-resolution adaptive optics
supported near-infrared imaging data of 2 high-redshift active galactic nuclei shall be reduced and
analyzed. The data are taken with the Large Binocular Telescope.
The analysis includes the determination of the spatial covariance function, the
derivation of photometric redshifts to prove the physical association to the active galaxy
and the interpretation in terms of the galaxy evolution in dense environments.
Fast radio burst host localisations: Fast radio bursts are extremely energetic but short (a few milliseconds)
events in the radio regime. Since they have been mostly detected via non-interferometric radio facilities, their
localisations are highly uncertain with error ellipses of up to 10 arcminutes. So far, a counterpart in any other wavelength
region has not been detected yet. In only 2 dozen cases (out of well of over 1000 known fast radio bursts) a localisation
and yet identification of their host galaxy was possible, yet shedding not much light on their nature. Given that all excpet
one are extragalactic in origin, it is no surpise that the well over 50 models to explain their physics have hardly been constrained.
Their dispersion measure allows to constrain their distance (redshift) though thus allowing at least to narrow down the potential
host galaxy in the error ellipse derived from the radio measurements. To identify the potential host galaxy of
fast radio bursts, multi-object spectroscopy has been carried out in the field of 6 of them. The galaxies
targeted were preselected based on photometric redshifts close to the redshift derived from the dispersion measure.
In this master thesis, the multi-object spectroscopic data shall be reduced, the properties of the individual galaxies
be derived and the most likely host galaxy of the fast radio burst in the field be identified.
Bachelor thesis - Bachelorarbeiten
Emission mechanisms in gamma-ray emitting Blazars:
In the last years, a number of Blazars have been detected at very high TeV energies.
These form a special class of active galactic nuclei whose relativistic jet is oriented almost
exactly along the line of sight to the observer. The detection of these sources is very important
as they can be used to set constraints on the intensity and spectrum of
the diffuse Extragalactic Background Light shedding light on its main origin.
In spite of the importance of high-energy emitting Blazars for cosmological applications,
the mechanism(s) giving rise to the high-energy emissions are not yet fully understood. A wide
variety of competing models (hadronic versus leptonic) are discussed. To constrain some of them,
high signal-to-noise optical spectra of a handful of TeV emitting Blazars have been secured
using the Large Binocular Telescope. In this Bachelor thesis, the spectra of these sources
shall be reduced and analyzed. Of particular importance is the determination of emission line
fluxes from the broad line region in these sources, which are direct ingredients of some of the
emission models discussed.
Note: This project can be combined with a physics practical.
Physics practicals - Projektpraktika
Transit and radial velocity measurements of stars hosting extrasolar planets:
Transit and radial velocity measurements of stars hosting extrasolar planets allow to derive
the radius and mass and hence the density of a planet orbiting its host star. This measurement combined
with orbital parameters allows to place this object into the "zoo" of extrasolar planets aka
short- vs long-period ones and rocky vs icy planets. For the preparation of a new task for
the astrolab, a newly developed tool called "Exo-striker" shall be explored using
archival data and its use for the astrolab been tested. Good knowledge of python is required.
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Maintained by
Jochen Heidt
Last modified: 13. 10. 2022