A Census of Mass-Transfer, Merger, and Collision Products in Old Open Clusters

Emily Leiner被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在西北大学开展一个研究和教育项目。近一半的类似太阳的恒星存在于双星系统中。莱纳将研究数百颗双星。开放集群?或年龄和组成相似的恒星群。这项研究将产生一个广泛的、具有良好特征的双星样本，这将有助于提高我们对双星演化的理解。除了这项研究，莱纳还将通过西北大学的一个推广项目与当地高中生合作，她还将在阿德勒天文馆进行公众推广。莱纳将对5个疏散星团的主序和巨大分支上的相互作用后的双星进行普查，年龄从25亿年到80亿年不等。她将利用光曲线和广泛的视向速度表得出的旋转速率来识别这些恒星。此外，她还将从恒星的振荡频率中识别出超大质量的恒星，并利用星震技术确定它们的质量和半径。莱纳将利用这个新的人口普查来限制这些相互作用后的种群的形成率和寿命，并研究设定这些比率和寿命的物理学。莱纳还将邀请芝加哥地区的高中生制作振荡红巨星和相互作用的双星系统的3d打印模型，她将使用这些模型来增强阿德勒天文馆游客的学习体验。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Emily Leiner is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at Northwestern University. Nearly half of the stars similar to the Sun exist in binary star systems. Leiner will study hundreds of binary stars within ?open clusters?, or groups of stars similar in age and composition. This study will yield an extensive and well characterized sample of binary stars that could help advance our understanding of binary stellar evolution. Alongside this research, Leiner will work with local high school students through an outreach program at Northwestern, and she will conduct public outreach at the Adler Planetarium.Leiner will perform a census of post-interaction binary stars on the main sequence and giant branches of five open clusters ranging in age from 2.5 to 8 billion years. She will identify these stars using rotation rates derived from light curves and extensive radial velocity catalogs. In addition, she will identify exceedingly massive stars from their oscillation frequencies and determine their masses and radii using asteroseismic techniques. Leiner will use this new census to constrain formation rates and lifetimes for these post-interaction populations, as well as to investigate the physics that sets these rates and lifetimes. Leiner will also engage Chicago-area high school students to produce 3D-printed models of oscillating red giant stars and interacting binary systems, and she will use these models to enhance the learning experience of visitors to the Adler Planetarium.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.