Research
In my research, I seek to understand how stellar variability can drive chemical evolution in planet forming regions. Thus far in my graduate career, I have experience in both theoretical chemical-disk modeling and radio observational astronomy.
Planet Forming Regions
In space, planet formation occurs when a molecular gas cloud collapses to from a protoplanetary disk. Over time, icy dust particles in the disk will stick together and get bigger and bigger to form planets. Understanding the chemical evolution in these planet forming regions is essential to understanding not only the origins of planets, but also in understanding the chemical pool available to planets. This knowledge helps us determine the habitability of planets beyond our Solar System and understand the history and origins of biological precursors.
Baby Suns, X-rays, and Flares
Young baby stars, known as T-tauri stars, are known be X-ray bright. High X-ray emission is attributed to hot ionized gas trapped in magnetic fields on the stellar surface. However, these magnetic loops can undergo re-connection events, resulting in a burst or 'flare' of X-ray photons (imaged above). T-tauri stars are known to be X-ray variable on relatively short (days-weeks) time scales, so it is important to that we have an accurate understanding of X-ray flaring events to also understand how this variability can drive disk chemistry and physics.
X-ray Light Curve Generator: XGEN
XGEN is a new model written by me! XGEN models flaring events using a random number generator, where flare energy is determined by a power-law distribution. Below is an example light curve (considered typical for a T-tauri star) produced by XGEN (flare statistics taken from Wolk et al. 2005), and a schematic demonstrating how XGEN works. This model is described in further detail in Waggoner & Cleeves (2022) and is publicly available on GitHbub.
Combining Flares and Disk Chemistry
X-ray photons are known to drive chemistry in astronomical settings, like protoplanetary disks, via the ionization of H2 and helium. Ionized H2+ can then either collide with another H2 molecule, resulting the in the fluorescence of UV photon, or abstract a proton from H2 to form H and H3+. Each of these three products are known to chemical evolution in planet forming regions.
Unfortunately, X-ray ionization rates are non-constant over time due to flaring events. My research aims to use both models and observations to better understand how variable X-ray ionization rates drive chemical evolution in protoplanetary disks.
If you are interested to know more about my work modeling flare driven chemistry, please refer to my publications tab.
Undergraduate:
Harvard-Smithsonian
CfA REU
Harvard-Smithsonian
CfA REU
During the Summer of 2017, I began my first astrochemistry project at the SMA-Havard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics REU program. During this time, I worked with Ilse Cleeves (who also became my PhD advisor) and modeled X-ray flare driven water variability in protoplanetary disks. This REU was the foundation of my astrochemistry career, because this project became the inspiration for my graduate research and the topic of my first first author publication.
Undergraduate:
Ball State University
Ball State University
At Ball State University I worked with Dr. James Poole studying physical organic chemistry from 2015-2018. During this time, I performed both experimental and theoretical research on radical chemistry. My experimental project explored regioselectivity of hydroxyl radical reactions with aromatic hydrocarbons to better constrain the importance of OH addition or H abstraction in the presence of functional groups on aromatic rings. My theory project modeled possible reaction pathways of Bpin reactions with various aromatic rings.
Interested in my work? Please reach out to me!