• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • UA Graduate and Undergraduate Research
    • UA Theses and Dissertations
    • Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • UA Graduate and Undergraduate Research
    • UA Theses and Dissertations
    • Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of UA Campus RepositoryCommunitiesTitleAuthorsIssue DateSubmit DateSubjectsPublisherJournalThis CollectionTitleAuthorsIssue DateSubmit DateSubjectsPublisherJournal

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    About

    AboutUA Faculty PublicationsUA DissertationsUA Master's ThesesUA Honors ThesesUA PressUA YearbooksUA CatalogsUA Libraries

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Measuring the Structure and Composition of Circumstellar Debris Disks

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Thumbnail
    Name:
    azu_etd_15022_sip1_m.pdf
    Size:
    13.50Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    Download
    Author
    Ballering, Nicholas
    Issue Date
    2016
    Keywords
    Astronomy
    Advisor
    Rieke, George
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Publisher
    The University of Arizona.
    Rights
    Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
    Abstract
    In this dissertation, I measure the structure and composition of circumstellar debris disks to probe the underlying planetary systems. In Chapter 1, I provide an introduction to the field of debris disks. I highlight our current observational and theoretical understanding of the field, rather than providing a detailed history. This is intended to give the reader context and motivation for the subsequent chapters. I also describe important developments in debris disk science that are not the focus of this dissertation, but are nevertheless vital for a complete overview. In Chapter 2, I describe my analysis of a large sample of cold (≲130 K) debris disks seen in Spitzer/IRS data. Previous work had suggested a common temperature for these disk components, regardless of spectral type. I find that there is trend with spectral type and argue that the locations of cold disks are not set by snow lines, but more likely by the formation/evolution of planets. This work was published in Ballering et al. (2013). In Chapter 3, I turn my focus to the warm (~190 K) debris components identified in Chapter 2---specifically those exhibiting silicate emission features. I show that these features arise from exozodiacal dust in the habitable zones around these stars. This was published in Ballering et al. (2014). In Chapter 4, I examine the remainder of the warm disks to investigate what mechanism sets their location. I find that for many systems, the locations trace the water snow line in the primordial protoplanetary disk, rather than the current snow line. This favors the interpretation that warm debris components arise from asteroid belts in these systems. This study will be published soon. In Chapter 5, I analyze images of the debris disk around beta Pictoris at five different wavelengths, including in thermal emission and scattered light. I find that matching the disk brightness at all wavelengths constrains the composition of the dust, with a mixture of astronomical silicates and organic refractory material fitting the data well. This was published in Ballering et al. (2016). In Chapter 6, I conclude with a summary of this dissertation and prospects for future progress in these areas.
    Type
    text
    Electronic Dissertation
    Degree Name
    Ph.D.
    Degree Level
    doctoral
    Degree Program
    Graduate College
    Astronomy
    Degree Grantor
    University of Arizona
    Collections
    Dissertations

    entitlement

     
    The University of Arizona Libraries | 1510 E. University Blvd. | Tucson, AZ 85721-0055
    Tel 520-621-6442 | repository@u.library.arizona.edu
    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2017  DuraSpace
    Quick Guide | Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.