This project, serving as my senior thesis, studies the period recovery of the new Vera Rubin Observatory(formerly the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) for eclipsing binary stars in clusters. By learning about the periods of binary stars, we can then infer the mass of these stars -- allowing us to test our models of stellar evolution.

We used data from catalogs provided from several sources of both Open and Globular clusters.

Our project attempts to optimize the LSST cadence for viewing eclipsing binaries between different LSST observing strategies (baseline and colossus, respectively). In general, colossus will observe the regions of the sky near the galactic plane more frequently than baseline. The thinking being that with more observations of regions where globular and open clusters reside, there is a higher chance of successfully recovering the period of eclipsing binaries in those clusters.

This GitHub repository is available for download via MIT License. The repository is laid out with several sub-directories corresponding to different parts of the project. The sub-directories are as follows:

• code - contains all requisite software and data files for the project
• plots - relevant plots are posted in this folder locally. To download plots, visit this box link.
• testing - playground suv-repository for testing new project software. Note that these versions are in development and not necessarily stable.
• outreach - directory containing files related to outreach projects (thesis writing, poster, CIERA REU website, etc.)

Feel free to look over our project poster which recently was awarded as a Chambliss Medalist at the 235th Meeting of the American AStronoimcal Society!

As of June 5th, 2020. I am very proud to say that we have completed writing my senior thesis! This project was the result of a lot of hard work. My thanks go out to my advisor, Dr. Aaron Geller (@ageller) for all his help along the way!

In addition, feel free to take a look at a AAS-style Research Note version of the thesis for a more condensed read of the project. This work was submitted to the Northwestern Undergradaute Research Journal.

Author(s): Andrew Bowen (1), Aaron M. Geller (2)

1. Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics 1800 Sherman Ave, 8th Floor Northwestern University, CIERA Evanston, IL 60201
2. Adler Planetarium 1300 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605

email: andrewbowen2020 [at] u.northwestern.edu