Variability of Hundreds of Extragalactic
X-ray Binaries
This was my summer research from when I interned at Harvard's SAO REU in 2018. This project holds a very special place in my heart, as it was during this time that I adopted a new level of confidence around my own research decisions and my own learning that I hadn't previously experienced as an undergrad. Below you will find links to the paper I wrote during my time at the SAO REU (paper was never published) and my American Astronomical Society poster that I won the Chambliss medal for.
Poster abstract
X-ray binaries are a fascinating class of astrophysical objects. They tend to be highly variable over both short and long time scales, and can experience sudden flares and long intervals of quiescence. Several physical phenomena, including eclipses, can produce periodic behavior. It has even been hypothesized that some X-ray binaries are orbited by planets. If this is the case, dips in the observed X-ray emission may occur. Here we report on our study of archived Chandra data from several hundred X-ray sources in the galaxies M51, M101, and M104. We analyzed the data by searching for interesting time signatures in the light curves of the X-ray sources, most of which are X-ray binaries, and have found flares and dips. We present the results and consider their implications, including the prospects for planet detection and for the search for X-ray triples.
