Adam Myers is studying the stuff of stars.
The associate professor of physics and astronomy at UW was awarded a $205,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue his study of cosmic high-energy physics.
“Cosmic high energy physics is really the study of the stuff of which our universe is made, and how that stuff moves through time and space,” Myers said in a UW release.
His subfield, cosmology, seeks to understand basic components of the universe, such as matter and energy, and how they interact. To achieve this, Myers’ work involves making, developing, and studying 3-D maps of the sky.
The study, entitled “eBOSS and DESI: LSS Catalogs, Targeting and Spectroscopic Contaminants,” will use Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to plot the universe by examining galaxies and quasars under the DOE grant.
The DESI software is critical to direct where in the sky DESI will deposit fibers to obtain a spectrum of all the target classes necessary to achieve its goal of forcing dark energy through most of cosmic history. Myers will work to develop and complete the targeting software for this DESI survey.
“The software I help to write for DESI extracts information on billions of stars and galaxies from breaking images of the sky into hundreds of trillions of pixels of information using the equivalent of dozens of years of time on supercomputing systems – DOE’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center,” Myers said.
The DESI project allows the study to push the limits of big data and engineering design. The UW newsletter stated, “To map the universe, DESI uses robots to place 5,000 optical fibers at very specific locations in the focal plane of a telescope that correspond to the position of an object in the sky.” DESI’s robots can reconstruct within a minute to observe 5,000 new locations.
Myers is not studying alone, however. He will have Brad Lyke, a second-year UW graduate student studying for a Ph.D. in physics, and Alexandra Higley, a UW sophomore majoring in astronomy, astrophysics, and physics alongside him. Danielle Schurhammer, a recent UW graduate with degrees in astronomy, astrophysics, and physics also assisted Myers in his study until recently.
The grant was announced July 30 by the DOE’s Office of High Energy Physics and will run through April 30, 2021.
For more information about Myers’ study, visit uwyo.edu.
