Ph.D. University of California, San Diego
B.S. University of Washington
My research interests include, among other areas, Big Bang nucleosynthesis and light element abundances, Lyman limit and damped Lyman alpha systems, astrophysical properties of quasar absorption line systems, and galaxy-intergalactic medium interactions.
My primary research focus is to attempt to better understand the universe through the study of absorption lines seen in the spectra of high redshift quasars (or QSOs). When we pass the light from any astronomical object through a spectrograph, it is broken into its constituent colors, producing a value for the intensity of the light as a function of the wavelength of the light. Spectroscopy is a powerful tool with which we can learn what types of atoms astronomical objects are made of, what their energies are, and how they are moving relative to us on Earth. In the case of QSO spectroscopy, the spectrum we see contains information about both the QSO and any material which happens to also lie along the line of site. In my research, it is the intervening material which interests me.
With two colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I recently published an astronomical break-through discovery in Science, the premier journal for all science on November 10, 2011.
Using the giant 10-meter Keck I telescope in Hawaii, we have discovered two giant clouds of intergalactic gas whose chemical composition has been unaltered since the dawn of time. The clouds, located over 11 billion light years from Earth, offer direct supporting evidence for the Big Bang model of cosmology. Physics World magazine named it one of their Top 10 Breakthroughs for 2011 (number 10).
Publications
- J.K. Werk et al. 2012 ApJS, 198,3
- M. Fumagalli et al. 2011 Science, 334, 1245
- J. Tumlinson et al. 2011 Science, 334, 948
- R. Simcoe et al. 2011 ApJ 740,1
- J. M. O'Meara et al. 2011 ApJS, 195,16
- J. Tumlinson et al. 2011 ApJ, 733, 111
- J. Meiring et al. 2011 ApJ, 532, 35
- J. M. O'Meara et al. 2010, GCN 11089,1
- J.X. Prochaska et al. 2010, ApJ, 532, 35
- M. Fumagalli et al. 2010, MNRAS, 408, 362
- G. Prochter et al. 2010, ApJ, 708, 122
- J.X. Prochaska et al. 2009, ApJL, 705,113
- The Interstellar Medium of Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies. I. Echelle Spectra of Swift GRB Afterglows
- J. X. Prochaska et al. 2007, ApJS, 168, 231
- The Keck+Magellan Survey for Lyman Limit Absorption. I. The Frequency Distribution of Super Lyman Limit Systems
- J. M. O’Meara et al. 2007, ApJ, 656, 666
- The Deuterium-to-Hydrogen Abundance Ratio toward the QSO SDSS J155810.16-003120.0 J. M. O’Meara et al. 2006, ApJ...649L..61O
- Supersolar Super-Lyman Limit Systems, J. X. Prochaska et al. 2006, ApJ...648L..97P
- A Shot in the Dark: A Technique for Locating the Stellar Counterparts of Damped Lyα Absorbers
- J. M. O’Meara et al. 2006, ApJ...642L...9O
- Predicting QSO Continua in the Lyα Forest, N. Suzuki et al. 2005, ApJ...618..592S
- Cosmological Parameters σ8, the Baryon Density Ωb, the Vacuum Energy Density ΩΛ, the Hubble Constant and the UV
- Background Intensity from a Calibrated Measurement of H I Lyα Absorption at z=1.9
- D. Tytler et al. 2004, ApJ...617....1T
- H I Gas in Higher Density Regions of the Intergalactic Medium
- T. Misawa et al. 2004, AJ....128.2954M
- Cosmology from the high redshift intergalactic medium
- J. M. O’Meara 2004, PhDT.......196O
- The Kast Ground-based Ultraviolet Spectral Survey of 79 Quasi-stellar Objects at Redshift 2 for Lyα Forest and Metal Absorption
- D. Tytler et al. 2004, AJ....128.1058T
- The Cosmological Baryon Density from the Deuterium-to-Hydrogen Ratio in QSO Absorption Systems: D/H toward Q1243+3047
- D. Kirkman et al. 2003, ApJS..149....1
- Relative Flux Calibration of Keck HIRES Echelle Spectra
- N. Suzuki et al. 2003, PASP..115.1050S
- The UCSD HIRES/Keck I Damped Lyα Abundance Database. IV. Probing Galactic Enrichment Histories with Nitrogen
- J. X. Prochaska et al. 2002, PASP..114..933P
- The UCSD HIRES/Keck I Damped Lyα Abundance Database. III. An Empirical Study of Photoionization in the Damped Lyα System toward GB 1759+7539
- J. X. Prochaska et al. 2002, ApJ...571..693P
- The UCSD HIRES/Keck I Damped Lyα Abundance Database. I. The Data
- J. X. Prochaska et al. 2001ApJS..137...21P
- New Hubble Space Telescope Spectra of QSO PG 1718+4807: No Evidence for Strong Deuterium Absorption
- D. Kirkman et al. 2001ApJ...559...23K
- The Deuterium to Hydrogen Abundance Ratio toward a Fourth QSO: HS 0105+1619
- J. M. O’Meara et al. 2001ApJ...552..718O
- QSO 0130-4021: A Third QSO Showing a Low Deuterium-to-Hydrogen Abundance Ratio
- D. Kirkman et al. 2000ApJ...529..655K
- Review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Primordial Abundances
- D. Tytler et al. 2000PhST...85...12T
- Deuterium and the baryonic density of the Universe.
- D Tytler. et al. 2000PhR...333..409T