Eric Joseph Bubar
University of Rochester
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Eric Joseph Bubar
Email:
ebubar@pas.rochester.edu
Address:
University of Rochester
Bausch and Lomb Hall
Rochester, NY 14620
About Me:
 I received my doctoral degree in Physics from Clemson University in August, 2009. I have now taken up residence in Rochester, New York in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester. I am working as a post-doctoral research associate under Professor Eric E. Mamajek doing stellar spectroscopy of various types of young stars. The following is a link to my ADS listings (ADS Link). As far as I know, I'm the only Bubar currently in astronomy, making finding my papers extremely easy!


Research Interests:
Stellar spectroscopy, spectral classification, fourier analysis in stellar spectroscopy, post T-Tauri stars, solar-type stars, young stellar associations and moving groups. I involve students (undergraduate, REU and graduate) in all aspects of the above research projects. In addition, I like to provide students with hands-on experience with astronomical observing. To this end, I encourage student's to travel with me to conferences and on observing runs to national and international observatories. In order to support local research at the University of Rochester I have supervised the purchase, installation and operations of a low-cost, commercially available spectrograph (the LHIRES III from Shelyak Instruments) for use with the Mees Observatory 24-inch telescope. This instrument is capable of obtaining both high resolution and classification resolution spectra of bright objects (V brighter than 9) for a variety of research projects. In the coming fall semester I will be working in tandem with Eric Mamajek and the students in the Graduate Stellar Astrophysics course to conduct research with this instrument and develop a robust variety of research projects.



Teaching Interests:
 I am a big proponent of teaching in a non-classical (i.e. not lecture-based approach). Current education research shows that students don't learn effectively in a lecture form. I believe in a discussion-oriented approach to teaching. Physics and astronomy are very interactive sciences and using demonstrations, group work and discussion is a natural approach to maximizing both student learning and enjoyment of class. For the educationally minded in the audience, two buzzwords that aptly define my teaching would be "inquiry-based teaching (e.g. learning by doing)" and "constructivism" (learning by building from the ground up).



Current Work:
 Working with young stars. Currently I am reducing and analyzing the single largest high resolution spectroscopic dataset for the low-mass members of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association. I will utilize this dataset to explore the adequacy of applying current 1-D LTE abundance analyses techniques in studying young (5-20 Myr), solar-type stars. High resolution stellar spectroscopy is one of the most robust tools in an astronomers arsenal and provides a wealth of useful information about target stars and my work will fill an apparent gap in our knowledge of young star evolution. This is particularly important for understanding how our own Sun was born and is a powerful approach to exploring the so-called planet formation epoch (1-10 Myr for gas giants, 1-100 Myr for terrestrial planets). Some of the "big picture" questions that I will address in my work include:

1) What causes the observed metallicity enhancements in exoplanet host stars?

2) Can refractory versus volatile abundance signatures be measured during the planet formation epoch?

3) What observational diagnostics (rotation, activity, debris disk presence, etc.) can be used to understand lithium depletion in the so-called "pre-main sequence lithium depletion epoch"?

4) How does chemical enrichment of the Galaxy occur as measured in self-enrichment among subgroups of stellar associations?

5) How can additional populations of nearby, young, pre-main sequence associations be identified?
Past Work:
 Undergraduate (Appalachian State University)
In my undergraduate work I studied under Dr. Richard Gray of Appalachian State University. Under his tutelage I studied stellar spectral classification in the MK system and applied the techniques to visually classifying hundreds of stars for the NASA NStars (Nearby Stars) Project. For more information on this project or to find out about SPECTRUM, the spectral synthesis tool I utilized in this work please go to the following website:
Appalachian State University NStars Website

Graduate (Clemson University)
For my graduate studies I attended Clemson University. I worked with Jeremy King on a variety of projects. For my Master's Thesis I conducted a study on 13 nearby, isolated, alleged Post T Tauri stars. Not many PMS stars between the T Tauri and stable Zero-Age main sequence ages were previously known. It has recently been realized that these stars are more likely to be found in loosely bound associations or appear as otherwise uninteresting field stars. For this work I developed a robust qualitative age-oriented analysis for identifying isolated field Post T Tauri stars using lithium abundances, chromospheric emission and UVW Kinematics.

For my doctoral research I explored the chemical homogeneity of alleged members of the Wolf 630 Moving Group using a precise abundance analysis using high resolution stellar spectroscopy of a sample of members. The broad impact of this work was to determine if 1) a dissolved open cluster can maintain a relatively close kinematic identity after traveling around the galaxy for multiple orbits and 2) if the classical Wolf 630 Moving Group of Olin Eggen could be characterized by a unique abundance signature across multiple elements.

In addition, I explored the surprising link between short-term chromospheric variability and planet periods in some exoplanet host stars using monte-carlo simulations of Ca II H and K emission cores. I also quantified how the use of photometrically or spectroscopically derived physical parameters impact abundance results. These are both ongoing projects.

Professional:

1) ADS LISTING

2) Curriculum Vitae (.pdf)

3) Curriculum Vitae (.ps)
Spectroscopy Stuff:
 Spectroscopy Links - This includes guides on how to reduce Echelle spectra using IRAF, how to do a classical abundance analysis in MOOG, tells what a classical abundance analysis entails in plain english and includes links to the linelists I use in my work (in a more or less MOOG-friendly format) and a link to PYSPEC.py, the python interface that I wrote to allow me to efficiently streamline some of the more tedious steps of abundance work. It now allows user interaction to iterate to correct basic physical parameters AND to iterate to the correctly propogated uncertainties ala Bubar, E.J., ``The Reality of the Wolf 630 MOving Group'', 2009, PhD Thesis.

NBODY MOVIES:

For my dissertation, in addition to precise abundance work I explored dynamical conditions for forming moving groups and stellar streams using NBODY Simulation. I utilized the NEMO Stellar Dynamics Toolbox to create simple toy models of open clusters orbiting in a pseudo-realistic model galactic potential. These models will be improved as my time allows and hopefully yield more scientifically viable results. At the moment, they are more fun to watch than anything else. If you use them for anything, I'd just appreciate a shoutout of some sort!

NBODY Simulation of a 500 star cluster (movie1.mov [13 MB], Quicktime-plays in browser).

NBODY Simulation of a 500 star cluster (movie1.avi [64 MB], WMV-downloadable).

Other/Generally Useful Stuff:

Coursework


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