The Yarkovsky effect is a non-gravitational force that perturbs the orbits of asteroids due to the anisotropy in their thermal emission. While the Yarkovsky effect has long been understood to be the main mechanism behind the delivery of kilometer-sized main belt asteroids into near-Earth orbits, the Yarkovsky effect has never been directly detected in the main belt. The small acceleration imparted by the Yarkovsky effect makes detection challenging, but it is also difficult to model as it is dependent on several physical properties of the asteroid that are often completely unknown. With the use of thermophysical modeling, I derived parameters for a sample of over a thousand main belt asteroids that allowed us to identify the most promising candidates for direct detection of Yarkovsky. Using the orbit determination software OrbFit and our set of expected Yarkovsky acceleration values, I am currently working on seeing if I can detect Yarkovsky with the existing body of observations of our asteroid sample. At the high redshift end, I have used a relatively new technique known as Voronoi tessellation Monte-Carlo (VMC) mapping to perform an exhaustive search for galaxy overdensities on a rich dataset of optical and near-infrared multi-band imaging and spectroscopy. I was able to measure precise systemic redshifts, estimate the total gravitating mass, and maintain high levels of purity and completeness even with moderate levels of spectroscopy across more than an order of magnitude in total structure mass at z~1 with the Observations of Redshift Evolution in Large-Scale Environments (ORELSE) survey. At higher redshifts (z>2), VMC mapping has been integral to the detection and characterization of individual large-scale structures in the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS) and Charting Cluster Construction with VUDS and ORELSE (C3VO) survey. I will show preliminary results of ongoing efforts with the VMC systematic structure search at 2<z<5.

Location:HBF-X Lecture hall and Zoom