Michael Wood-Vasey

University of Pittsburgh
Curriculum Vitae and Publications

Observational Cosmology and Fundamental Physics

My research focuses on discovering the nature of the dark energy currently accelerating the expansion rate of the Universe. I use the tools of observational astronomy to address this question of fundamental physics. The currently most successful probe of the kinematics of the Universe over the past 10 billion years has involved the use of Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) to measure the evolution of luminosity distance vs. redshift (Riess98, Perlmutter99). I have been involved in the effort to constrain the nature of dark energy through measurements of the equation-of-state parameter of the dark energy, w=P/rho. This is a field where the observations are clearly far out in front of theory and thus call for investigation by multiple pathways to confirm the observational results and explore new areas to provide further guidance for the hope of an eventually theoretical explanation for dark energy that quantitative predicts its observed behavior today. Toward that end I am continuing to lead efforts in SNIa cosmology while investigating promising alternative techniques such as baryon acoustic oscilations (BAO; Eisenstein05) and cluster abundances through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.

Research Projects

• Pan-STARRS1.
  • Transient and Variable Event Classification and Detection.
  • Type Ia supernova cosmology.
  • Unusual and rare explosive transients.

  

• See the Pitt Astronomy and Cosmology research Wiki for more details.
• Pitt SN Reading Group.
• Students interested in beginning research in my group should see the following evolving page for some papers and exercises to get up to speed.
• ESSENCE: Measuring the dark energy equation-of-state parameter with Type Ia supernovae. See Wood-Vasey et al. 2007a, ApJ 666, 694.

  
  

• Infrared Observations of Type Ia supernovae with PAIRITEL. We've doubled the sample of SNeIa observe in the NIR and confirmed that they are standard in their absolute brightness to 0.15 magnitudes or 7% in distance. See Wood-Vasey et al. 2007b, astro-ph/0711.2068.

  

• LSST: Chair of the Supernova Science Collaboration
• Cluster abundance cosmology through SZ surveys
  
  • Current and upcoming surveys such as the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) will provide a map of clusters detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, which is independent of redshift. Complementary optical observations will determine spectroscopic redshifts to these cluster while X-ray observations with satellites such as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory will measure the baryonic mass through measurements of the hot electron gas.
• Progenitors of Type Ia supernovae. See Wood-Vasey and Sokoloski 2006, ApJL 645, L53.
  • Surveys for binary progenitors systems in the Milky Way.
  • Radiative hydrodynamic modeling of Type Ia supernova progenitor systems.

Pitt and CMU Colloquiua and Seminars

Teaching and Outreach

• Astronomy 97hf: Introductory Sophomore Tutorial (Fall 2007-Spring 2008)

  A course on practical techniques in observational astronomy. We cover telescopes, optics, CCDs, data reduction, IDL, catalogs, SDSS, skycalc, LaTeX, ds9, and other common tools of the (optical) astronomy. This menagerie of topics will come together in a year-end project that will incorporate all of these techniques and resources into a final paper and presentation on an astronomical topic directed by the students.

• Freshman Seminar 24z: The Hidden Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Extra Dimensions

  Co-taught with Christopher Stubbs. Reading, discussion, and analysis of history and current topics in cosmology, including the largest outstanding questions of the day which point toward new fundamental physics.

• Dark Energy at Sunrise

  The WUML Sunrise program at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell on dark energy, astronomy, exploration, and the joy of science.

• Interview on String Theory

  An interview on string theory and extra dimensions with a pretty sharp high-school student.

First-Author Papers

1. Type Ia Supernovae are Good Standard Candles in the Near Infrared: Evidence from PAIRITEL   [PDF]  astro-ph/0711.2068
   W. M. Wood-Vasey et al. ApJ, submitted to ApJ, Nov 2007.
   
   
2. Observational Constraints on the Nature of Dark Energy: First Cosmological Results from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey  [PDF] [ADS] astro-ph/0701041
   W. M. Wood-Vasey et al. ApJ, 2007, Vol 666, Issue 2, pp. 694-715.
   DOI:10.1086/518642
   Supplemental information available at http://www.ctio.noao.edu/essence/wresults.
   
   
3. Novae as a Mechanism for Producing Cavities around the Progenitors of SN 2002ic and Other SNe Ia  [ADS] astro-ph/0605635
   W. M. Wood-Vasey and J. L. Sokoloski. ApJL, 2006, Vol 645, pp. L53-L56.
   DOI:10.1086/506179
   
   
4. Photometry of SN 2002ic and Implications for the Progenitor Mass-Loss History  [ADS] astro-ph/0406191
   W. M. Wood-Vasey, L. Wang, G. Aldering. ApJ, 2004, Vol. 616, pp. 339-345.
   DOI: 10.1086/424826
   
   
5. The Nearby Supernova Factory [PDF] [PS] [ADS] astro-ph/0401513
   W. M. Wood-Vasey, G. Aldering, B. C. Lee, S. Loken, P. Nugent, S. Perlmutter, J. Siegrist, L. Wang, P. Antilogus, P. Astier, D. din, R. Pain, Y. Copin, G. Smadja, E. Gangler, A. Castera, G. Adam, R. Bacon, J-P. Lemonnier, A. Pecontal, E. Pecontal, R. Kessler. Conference proceedings for Workshop on Supernovae and Dust held in Paris, France, 16-17 May, 2003.
   DOI: 10.1016/j.newar.2003.12.056
   
   
6. Computational Modeling of Classical and Ablative Rayleigh-Taylor Instabilities [PDF] [PS]
   W. M. Wood-Vasey, K. S. Budil, B. A. Remington, S. G. Glendinning, A. M. Rubenchik, M. Berning, J. O. Kane, and J. T. Larsen. Lasers and Particle Beams, 2000, Vol. 18, Issue 04, pp. 583-593.
   

Dissertation

• Rates and Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae  [PDF]
  W. M. Wood-Vasey, Ph.D. Dissertation in Physics, UC Berkeley, Dec 2004.
  Dissertation Co-Chairs: Saul Perlmutter and George Smoot.

All Publications

• Full list of publications

• ADS Listing of Refereed Publications
• ADS Listing of All Publications

Last modified: Fri Feb 13 09:27:00 EST 2008