Research
Currently: Building balloon‑borne high‑frequency VLBI instruments, Past Work: Polarization in star‑forming cores, and developement of RFSoC based tone‑tracking techniques for MKID arrays.
Open thesisMaster's Thesis
Mm/sub‑mm instrumentation for star formation and black hole science, polarization stacking in dense cores, CCAT Prime atmospheric sensitivity, and a balloon‑borne VLBI pathfinder (BVEX) using RFSoC boards.
Current project
BVEX — Balloon‑borne VLBI Experiment
BVEX on CSA CARMENCITA Gondola
A 1 m single‑dish balloon platform at K‑band (22 GHz) to obtain simultaneous VLBI fringes with a ground telescope — pushing angular resolution pathways beyond current limits.
- IF stage and backend readout architecture
- Timing reference and position reconstruction
- High‑speed RFSoC 4x2 FPGA data path
Past projects
Polarization in dense cores
Magnetic fields are thought to play a crucial role in star formation by providing support against the gravitational collapse of dense clumps of gas, called cores, which are precursors to individual stellar systems. Polarized thermal radiation from aligned dust grains is an essential tool for studying magnetic fields within star‑forming cores. However, the aligning radiation from the local interstellar field may be attenuated by the large dust column surrounding these dense cores.
The central question is: are dust grains aligned within the cores? If so, polarization maps can be used to trace the core‑scale magnetic fields. Studying different stages of core evolution also reveals how well grains remain aligned at each stage—for example, a luminous protostar at the center could provide the alignment torque needed to maintain grain alignment.
I analyze JCMT observations and apply stacking analysis to filtered snapshots of individual stellar cores to improve the signal‑to‑noise. The goal is to extend this method to higher‑resolution (~5″) data from upcoming surveys such as TolTEC Fields in Filaments. For more details, see my MSc thesis here.
Atmospheric characterization and MKID tone tracking for CCAT‑Prime
CCAT‑Prime is a 6 m telescope under construction at 5600 m on Cerro Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The extremely dry conditions enable excellent millimeter and sub‑millimeter observations. The Prime‑Cam instrument will operate at 1.1 mm, 0.85 mm, and 0.35 mm and can employ next‑generation MKID detectors, which offer a simpler readout than TES arrays. Incoming photons break Cooper pairs in the superconducting resonators, shifting the inductance; by injecting a probe tone into each resonator, we track the frequency shift and thereby recover the signal strength.
I am characterizing the atmosphere at the CCAT site to inform robust tone‑tracking strategies for MKID readout. Using Scott Paine’s Atmospheric Modeling (AM) package, I simulate monthly conditions at the site. With skydip simulations—how detector power changes as the telescope slews between elevations—I estimate retuning cadence and target responsivities. Based on these results, I am developing a tone‑tracking algorithm on modern Xilinx RFSoC FPGAs. For additional context, see my MSc thesis here.
