This thesis examines the role of the people of West Virginia in bringing the NRAO to Green Bank, West Virginia. It explores the impact of the space race, big science and the Cold War on a small rural community nestled in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains during the 1950s. There has been very little scholarship done on how local residents and state politicians helped to shape big science. The thesis opens with a brief history of early radio astronomy starting with the work of Karl Jansky and Grote Reber. It discusses the influence of HAM radio on radio astronomy. It also briefly details the arguments between NRAO founders Lloyd Berkner and Merle Tuve about the direction of the NRAO. In addition, it examines U.S. Senator Harley Kilgores D-WV) role in the development of the National Science Foundation. It focuses on the contributions of West Virginia Governor William Marland towards establishing the West Virginia Radio Quiet Zone, which later lead to the National Radio Quiet Zone. This was a unique piece of legislation. This is the only radio quiet zone in the country, not to mention the first in the world. U.S. Representative Harley Staggers D-WV) played the largest role of any politician in bringing the NRAO to Green Bank. Considerable attention is given to Pocahontas Times editor, Cal Price in convincing the local citizenry to accept the limitations of living in the National Radio Quiet Zone. It also describes the reactions of the local residents to, and the continuing impact of, the NRAO on Green Bank and Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

Understanding the history of ice on Mars provides important insight into Martian geologic and climatic history. A model capable of ice reconstruction that requires few input parameters, and a detailed analyses of landforms in an area with hypothesized glacial modification, Argyre Planitia, provide further understanding of Martian ice. A threshold-sliding model was developed to model perfectly-plastic deformation of ice that is applicable to ice bodies that deform when a threshold basal shear stress is exceeded. The model requires three inputs describing bed topography, ice margins, and a function defining the threshold basal shear stress. The model was tested by reconstructing the Greenland ice sheet and then used to reconstruct ice draping impact craters on the margins of the Martian South Polar Layered Deposits using an average constant basal shear stress of &sim；0.6 bars for the majority of Martian examples. This inferred basal shear stress value is almost 1/3 of the average basal shear stress calculated for the Greenland ice sheet. Reasons for the lower Martian basal shear stress are unclear but could involve the strain-weakening behavior of ice. The threshold-sliding model can be used for ice reconstruction and forward modeling of erosion and deposition to provide further insight into the history of ice on Mars. To test the glacial hypothesis in the Argyre region, landforms are examined using images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment HiRISE) and other Martian datasets. Linear grooves and streamlined hills are consistent with glacial erosion. Deep semi-circular embayments in mountains resemble cirques. U-shaped valleys have stepped longitudinal profiles and tributary valleys have hanging valley morphology similar to terrestrial glacial valleys. Boulders blanketing a valley floor resemble ground moraine. Sinuous ridges cross topography, have layers, occur in troughs, and have variations in height that appear related to the surrounding surface slope； these are characteristics consistent with terrestrial eskers. At least portions of Argyre appear to be modified by ice accumulation, flow, erosion, stagnation and ablation. The type and amount of bedrock erosion and presence of possible eskers suggests the ice was, at times, wet-based.

Abstract not available.

We investigate weak and strong refocusing of light rays in a space-time and related concepts. A strongly causal space-time Xn ＋1, g) is strongly refocusing at x &isin； X if there is a point y &ne； x such that all null-geodesics through y pass through x. A space-time is strongly refocusing if it is strongly refocusing at some point. Robert Low introduced three definitions of weak) refocusing. We prove that these definitions are indeed equivalent. Following a sketch provided by Low, we give a thorough proof of his statement that a strongly causal non-refocusing space-time is homeomorphic to its sky space. A strongly refocusing space-time is refocusing. The converse is unknown. We construct examples of space-times which are refocusing, but not strongly so, at a particular point. These space-times are strongly refocusing at other points. The geometrization conjecture proved by Perelman implies that a globally hyperbolic refocusing space-time of dimension &le； 4 admits a strongly refocusing Lorentz metric. We show that the set of points at which a strongly causal space-time is refocusing is closed. We prove that a Lorentz covering space of a strongly causal refocusing space-time is a strongly causal refocusing space-time. This generalizes the result of Chernov and Rudyak for globally hyperbolic space-times. We compare refocusing and strong refocusing with their Riemannian analogues, Y&tilde；x- and Ylx-manifolds. A complete connected Riemannian manifold M is called a Ylx-manifold if there exist x &isin； M and l &isin； R＋ such that all unit speed geodesics starting at x at time 0 return to x at time l. In our work with Chernov and Sadykov we introduce Y&tilde；x-manifolds that generalize Ylx-manifolds. There we prove that some conclusions of the Berard-Bergery Theorem for Ylx-manifolds hold in fact for Y&tilde；x-manifolds. This result is discussed in this thesis. Following the sketch of Chernov we provide the thorough proof of the statement in their paper with Rudyak that a timelike curve in a globally hyperbolic space-time can be perturbed so that it is transverse to a null-cone and avoids the singular and multiple points of the null-cone. We investigate a possible generalization.

This thesis describes my contribution to the design, assembly and testing required for a camera using antenna-coupled Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors MKIDs). MKIDs are superconducting resonators in which the resonance frequency and quality factor are sensitive measures of Cooper pairs broken by incident radiation. The MKID camera, called the Multicolor Submillimeter Inductance Camera MUSIC), is built to detect and characterize the physics of dusty submillimeter galaxies, the primary component of the far-infrared background discovered by the COBE satellite. The camera will have 576 pixels sensitive to 4 colors simultaneously in the range of 150–360 GHz. With these bands, combined with shorter wavelength data from instruments on the Spitzer and Herschel far-infrared satellites, we can find the integrated flux from high-redshift dusty galaxies and identify galaxies likely to be at extremely high redshift. We have achieved first light using a demonstration instrument “DemoCam”), testing two colors, centered at 240 GHz and 350 GHz, in 2007, and demonstrated three-color operation in 2010. In the thesis is discussed the design, testing and optimization of DemoCam, in particular its function in testing several iterations of arrays of antenna-coupled MKID resonators. The arrays tested are 4×4 arrays of two-color antenna pixels, and newer 6×6 arrays of three-color antenna pixels, the latter with a “dark” or uncoupled resonator for each antenna. This testing has been used to explore the physics of the detectors, test which properties maximize the detector signal-to-noise ratio, and to inform the MKID cameras optical design. The goal of this testing is find how to improve sensitivity to minimize Noise Equivalent Power in the presence of large background loads, as in ground-based sub/millimeter astronomy. The DemoCam is shown to reach interesting levels of sensitivity on the sky in three colors 230, 290 and 350 GHz), and to have effective calibration mechanisms, with the readout system used for the final camera.

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are excellent tools in cosmology. Their intrinsic luminosities are found to vary systematically with the light-curve widths, providing an empirical calibration. This property, called the width-luminosity relation (WLR), is the basis of modern SN Ia cosmology and led to the unexpected discovery of the current accelerated rate of cosmic expansion. By examining the spectroscopic diversity of SNe Ia, this thesis aims to improve both the use of SNe Ia in cosmology and the physical understanding of the observed properties. Spectra of SNe Ia contain a wealth of information, but are difficult to organize. In this thesis, new methods are developed to consistently quantify and analyze the spectral features of supernovae. The efficacy of the methods is tested on a large library of observed spectra encompassing a wide range of properties. The spectroscopic diversity of SNe Ia enters cosmology through K-correction calculations. Before this work, K-correction was a major contributor of the systematic errors in cosmology. It is shown here that the systematic errors can be largely diminished by carefully quantifying the mean spectroscopic properties of SNe Ia. The remaining statistical errors are also quantified and shown to be redshift dependent. With the aid of principal component analysis (PCA), the multidimensional spectral information is reduced to a few components describing the largest variations in the spectral library. Using this tool, it is shown here that SN Ia intrinsic luminosity is the main driver of the spectroscopic diversity at maximum light, for every spectral feature from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. These spectroscopic sequences can potentially account for a large fraction of the K-correction statistical errors and even enable the use of SN Ia spectra as independent indicators of intrinsic luminosity and colors. The established relations will also disentangle the effects of demographic shift and true evolution in high-redshift SN Ia spectra. The temporal evolution of the spectral features is shown to exhibit the persistence of the spectroscopic sequences throughout other epochs. The effect is attributed to the more rapid spectroscopic temporal evolution of fainter SNe Ia. This conclusion supports the theory that WLR is primarily a spectroscopic effect, rather than a bolometric one.

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are excellent tools in cosmology. Their intrinsic luminosities are found to vary systematically with the light-curve widths, providing an empirical calibration. This property, called the width-luminosity relation (WLR), is the basis of modern SN Ia cosmology and led to the unexpected discovery of the current accelerated rate of cosmic expansion. By examining the spectroscopic diversity of SNe Ia, this thesis aims to improve both the use of SNe Ia in cosmology and the physical understanding of the observed properties. Spectra of SNe Ia contain a wealth of information, but are difficult to organize. In this thesis, new methods are developed to consistently quantify and analyze the spectral features of supernovae. The efficacy of the methods is tested on a large library of observed spectra encompassing a wide range of properties. The spectroscopic diversity of SNe Ia enters cosmology through K-correction calculations. Before this work, K-correction was a major contributor of the systematic errors in cosmology. It is shown here that the systematic errors can be largely diminished by carefully quantifying the mean spectroscopic properties of SNe Ia. The remaining statistical errors are also quantified and shown to be redshift dependent. With the aid of principal component analysis (PCA), the multidimensional spectral information is reduced to a few components describing the largest variations in the spectral library. Using this tool, it is shown here that SN Ia intrinsic luminosity is the main driver of the spectroscopic diversity at maximum light, for every spectral feature from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. These spectroscopic sequences can potentially account for a large fraction of the K-correction statistical errors and even enable the use of SN Ia spectra as independent indicators of intrinsic luminosity and colors. The established relations will also disentangle the effects of demographic shift and true evolution in high-redshift SN Ia spectra. The temporal evolution of the spectral features is shown to exhibit the persistence of the spectroscopic sequences throughout other epochs. The effect is attributed to the more rapid spectroscopic temporal evolution of fainter SNe Ia. This conclusion supports the theory that WLR is primarily a spectroscopic effect, rather than a bolometric one.

Solid CO2 has been detected in many lines of sight in the interstellar medium from infrared observatories. Spectral profiles from space-based observatories have suggested that CO2 on icy grain mantles is mixed with other common molecules such as H2O and CH 3OH in interstellar regions and that thermal annealing has occurred. The vibrational mode at 658 cm-1 (15.2 mum) is suspected to be a powerful diagnostic tool as to the composition of species on icy grain mantles as well as thermal histories. However, previous studies have not systematically investigated ice composition and temperature. Laboratory spectra of interstellar ice analogs have been created in this study order to better understand the physical properties of solid CO2 in these interstellar environments. Existing databases of ice composition studies and effects of ice thermal history were updated in this study to include a more systematic approach. The 658 cm-1 (15.2 mum) bending mode feature of CO2 is examined here and the subsequent astrophysical implications stated. In the first set of experiments, 47 mixtures of H2O,CH3OH, andCO2 were slowly warmed and mid-infrared absorption spectra were recorded at 5K intervals. The second set of experiments involved examining the CO2 bending mode feature of 10 different CO2-containing ice mixtures at different temperatures where ice segregation was suspected. In these experiments, the ice mixtures were slowly heated to the desired temperature for increasing time intervals before cooling down and recording mid-IR absorption spectra. These studies may be used to analyze IR data from space-based observatories such as the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph as well other future IR observations of the interstellar medium. Finally, mass spectroscopy measurements were taken from temperature programmed desorption (TPD) experiments performed on several binary mixtures of H2O ＋ CO2 and CH 3OH ＋ CO2. Physical properties such as desorption energy of CO2 can be determined from the TPD traces of these experiments. The work provided here addresses the physical properties of solid CO 2 thermally processed in ice mixtures in interstellar environments by laboratory simulations spectroscopically analyzed by mid-infrared absorption profiles and TPD.

We introduce a Bayesian methodology for determining the velocity dispersions of dwarf galaxies which takes into account both binarity and contamination by nonmember stars in a self-consistent way. This method can be readily extended to determine masses and related quantities such as the dark matter annihilation cross-section of dwarf galaxies. In addition we show that measured velocity dispersions of dwarf spheroidal galaxies from about 4 to 10 km/s are unlikely to be inflated by more than 30% due to the orbital motion of binary stars, and demonstrate that the intrinsic velocity dispersions can be determined to within a few percent accuracy using multi-epoch observations with 1-2 years as the optimal time interval. This methodology also constrains properties of binary populations (e.g. binary fraction, period distribution) from multi-epoch velocity measurements, and can be applied to both dwarf galaxies as well as star clusters.

This thesis investigates the quasar mass-luminosity plane, as a new tool to explore the relationship between black hole mass and quasar luminosity over time. Previous techniques used quasar luminosity function and mass functions, which are one-dimensional projections of the mass-luminosity plane. The M — L plane contains information that cannot be seen in these projections. We use 62,185 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR5 sample to develop several new constraints on quasar accretion. Black hole masses, based on the widths of their Hbeta, Mg II, and C IV lines and adjacent continuum luminosities, were used assuming using standard virial mass estimate scaling laws. In each redshift interval over the range 0.2 &lt； z &lt； 4.0, low-mass quasars reach at their Eddington luminosity, but high-mass quasars fall short, even by a factor of ten or more at 0.2 &lt； z &lt； 0.6. We examine several potential sources of measurement uncertainty or bias and show that none of them can account for this effect. We also show the statistical uncertainty in virial mass estimation to have an upper bound of &sim； 0.2 dex, smaller than the 0.4 dex previously reported. The maximum mass of quasars at each redshift is sharp and evolving. High-mass black holes turn off their luminous accretion at higher redshift than lower-mass black holes. Further, turnoff for quasars at any given mass is synchronized to within 0.7–3 Gyr, tighter than would be expected given the dynamics of their host galaxies. We find potential signatures of the quasar turnoff mechanism, including a dearth of high-mass quasars at low Eddington ratio, low CIV/MgII emission line ratio, and a red spectral tilt. Finally, we use these new constraints to analyze models for the evolution of individual quasars over time. We find a restricted family of tracks that lie within the M — L plane at all redshifts, suggesting that a single, constant feedback mechanism between all supermassive black holes and their host galaxies might apply at all times. We briefly discuss the implications of these new constraints on models for supermassive black hole evolution.