Jennifer Carson: astronomer

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
M/S 43A
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Phone: (650) 926-2812
carson@slac.stanford.edu

Education

GLAST Postdoc, SLAC, present
PhD in astrophysics, UCLA, 2005
MS in physics, SFSU, 1999
SB in physics, MIT, 1994

Dissertation Research

I did my dissertation research with Professor Rene Ong on the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Event Experiment (STACEE). STACEE uses the heliostats at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility, maintained by Sandia National Laboratories, to detect Cherenkov radiation from air showers induced by energetic gamma rays striking the earth's atmosphere. STACEE is sensitive to gamma ray energies above about 100 GeV, and is one of the first experiments sensitive to this energy regime.

One of STACEE's main science goals is to measure the gamma-ray flux from blazars. The beamed radiation from the inner jets of blazars includes gamma ray emission that probably originates via inverse Compton scattering of optical and UV photons off of the jet's relativistic electrons. The source of the photons is either the jet electrons' synchrotron emission or reprocessed radiation from the accretion disk. The high energy (x-ray through gamma-ray) spectrum is sensitive to the soft photon source and the distribution of relativistic electrons.

I developed a method for reconstructing gamma-ray energies from the STACEE data and measured the spectrum of the nearby (z=0.03) blazar Markarian 421 above 150 GeV. The spectral index is 1.8 +/- 0.3. This is flatter than the spectrum measured at high energies and suggests that we are detecting the high-energy peak of the SED for the first time. The full thesis is here.

Publications

High-Energy Gamma-Ray Observations of W Comae with the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cerenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE)
Scalzo, R.A., Boone, L.M., Bramel, D., Carson, J., Covault, C.E., Fortin, P., Gauthier, G., Gingrich, D.M., Hanna, D., Jarvis, A., Kildea, J., Lindner, T., Mueller, C., Mukherjee, R., Ong, R.A., Ragan, K.J., Williams, D.A., Zweerink, J. 2004, ApJ, 607:778

Astrophysics around 100 GeV with STACEE
Williams, D.A., Boone, L.M., Bramel, D., Carson, J., Covault, C.E., Fortin, P., Gauthier, G., Gingrich, D., Hanna, D., Jarvis, A., Kildea, J., Mueller, C., Mukherjee, R., Ong, R.A., Ragan, K.J., Scalzo, R.A., Zweerink, J. 2004, New Astronomy Reviews, 48:359

Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy of Two High-Redshift Radio Galaxies
Carson, J.E., Larkin, J.E., McLean, I.S. 2001, ApJ, 563:63

Optical Identification of Faint X-ray Sources in the Core of Omega Centauri
Carson, J.E., Cool. A.M., Grindlay, J.E. 2000, ApJ, 532:461C

The centi-arcsecond structure of 16 low-frequency variable sources at 92 cm
Altschuler, D.R., Gurvitz, L.I., Alef, W., Dennison, B., Graham, D., Trotter, A.S., Carson, J.E. 1995, A&A Supp, 114, 197A, A95

Oral Presentations

The Spectrum of Mkn 421 Above 100 GeV with STACEE
Carson, J.E. for the STACEE collaboration. 2005, 29th ICRC, Pune, India

Posters

GeV Gamma-ray Observations of AGN with STACEE
Carson, J.E. for the STACEE collaboration. 2004 AAS HEAD meeting #8, 04.05

GeV Gamma-ray Observations of Blazars with STACEE
Carson, J.E. for the STACEE collaboration. 2003 AAS meeting #203, 79.04

NIRSPEC Spectra of High-z Radio Galaxies
Carson, J.E., Larkin, J.E., McLean, I.S., Graham, J.R., Becklin, E.E., Figer, D.F., Gilbert, A.M., Levenson, N.A., Teplitz, H.I., Wilcox, M.K. 2000 AAS meeting #196, 50.15

Discovery of Cataclysmic Variable Candidates in the Core of Omega Centauri
Carson, J.E., Cool. A.M., Grindlay, J.E. 1998 AAS meeting #193, 68.04

Snapshot VLBI mapping at 92cm of 16 low frequency variable extragalactic sources
Carson, J.E., Altschuler, D.R., Gurvitz, L.I., Alef, W., Graham, D., Dennison, B., Trotter, A.S. 1993 AAS meeting #183, 75.09

Centiarcsecond structure and variability of AGN
Altschuler, D.R., Gurvitz, L.I., Alef, W., Graham, D., Dennison, B., Carson, J.E., Trotter, A.S. 1994, International Astronomical Union Symposium, 159, 389A

A Database of High Redshift Quasar Radio Properties: Preliminary Results
Carson, J.E., Lonsdale, C.J., Barthel, P.D. 1992 AAS meeting #181, 11.04

Other stuff...

My page about self defense for women

Books on my shelf