Papers on arXiv

Alright! First two published papers are now on arXiv! Maybe I'll do a dedicated post about each one in a little more detail, but for now, here are the links.

A Systematic Analysis of Caustic Methods for Galaxy Cluster Masses

Velocity Anisotropy and Shape Bias in the Caustic Technique

Long time no post

No excuse on this one. Definitely been far too long since I posted something here, but that is not for lack of progress on my projects. I recently submitted 2 different papers on my galaxy cluster work, which I will discuss more when I post them to the arXiv. Looking forward to sharing!

Estimating r200

How do you estimate r200 (the radius at which the density reaches 200 times the critical density to close the universe) with only the galaxies? Very carefully.

The Move to Linux... Finally

Today my iMac desktop finally got upgraded to RedHat 6. I have been very disappointed in the OSX system and the direction it keeps heading in. In the latest release, you don't even get X11 standard! I like Macs and have used them solidly for 6 years now, but it is very frustrating when you have to jump through so many hoops just to install a Python module.

New Astrobite

Check out my latest astrobite on preserving our dark skies!

http://astrobites.com/2012/05/15/preserving-our-dark-skies/

Prelims!

My inactivity on my blog has been due to my inactivity in research. Recently, I have been preparing for my preliminary exam which is no small task. I took both the written and oral portions of the exam this past week as PASSED! Now I can finally get back to work!

New Astrobite

Mining for Fossils in our Universe

I had the pleasure of summarizing Craig Harrison's paper who is a postdoc in our galaxy cluster research group here at Michigan. A well written paper!