Email: ajb@mit.edu Phone: (617) 452-5113 Fax: (617) 253-9798 Address: Building 37-664B MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research 77 Massachusetts Ave. Building 37-664B Cambridge, MA 02139 Related Links: Adam Burgasser's Home Page

Research Interests

Professor Adam Burgasser's research focuses on the observational study of the lowest mass stars and brown dwarfs (stars of such low mass that they do not fuse hydrogen in their cores). Over the past several years, he has discovered and studied dozens of the coldest brown dwarfs known, so-called "T dwarfs", which have atmospheres similar to giant planets in the solar system. Through optical and infrared spectroscopic
investigations, Burgasser has investigated the primary chemical constituents found in these cold atmospheres; defined a classification scheme; and has identified diagnostics of temperature, surface gravity, and chemical composition that he has used to determine fundamental properties such as mass and age.

Professor Burgasser also studies the lowest luminosity "subdwarfs", stars that appear to have a lower concentration of chemical elements (other than hydrogen) as compared to the Sun and other nearby stars. These metal-poor stars formed very early on the Galaxy's history, and are therefore useful probes of ancient Galactic structure, star formation and chemical enrichment. Burgasser focuses much of his effort on a class of subdwarfs called "L subdwarfs", the coldest subdwarfs known, and which
likely includes the first brown dwarfs formed in the Galaxy.

Professor Burgasser also works on multiplicity statistics of brown dwarfs as a means of understanding the formation of these objects, magnetic activity of low mass stars as probed by hydrogen line and radio emission, and Monte Carlo simulations of brown dwarf populations to as means of determining the mass function (the number of stars born per unit mass) of brown dwarfs in the Galaxy. Burgasser makes use of many of the
premier observational facilities in the world for his work, including the Magellan Telescopes; and is currently working with Prof. Robert Simcoe on the development of a new infrared spectrograph for this facility which has received funding from the National Science Foundation.

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Biographical Sketch

A native of Buffalo, New York, Assistant Professor Adam Burgasser received his B.S. in Physics from the University of California, San Diego, in 1996, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics (with a special emphasis on Planetary
Science) from the California Institute of Technology in 2001. His thesis research on the coldest known brown dwarfs (very low mass stars incapable of hydrogen fusion) led to the designation of a new stellar spectral class, the T dwarfs. He continues his observational work on low mass stars and brown dwarfs using facilities around the world, including the Magellan Telescopes operated in part by MIT. After working as a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, and then as a Spitzer Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Professor Burgasser joined the Physics faculty at MIT in July 2005. He also serves as graduate affiliate faculty at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, and resides part-time in Maui with his wife and three dogs. A national springboard diving champion in 1996, Professor Burgasser has coached at both UC San Diego and Caltech and is currently a faculty representative for MIT's Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Team.

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Selected Publications

Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Observations of T Dwarfs: Brown Dwarf Multiplicity and New Probes of the L/T Transition 2006, Astrophys. J. Supplement, 166, 585-612 Burgasser, AJ, Kirkpatrick, JD, Cruz, KL, Reid, IN, Leggett, SK, Liebert, J, Burrows, A, & Brown, ME.

A Method for Determining the Physical Properties of the Coldest Known Brown Dwarfs 2006, Astrophys. J., 639, 1095-1113 Burgasser, AJ, Burrows, A, & Kirkpatrick, JD.

Quiescent Radio Emission from Southern Late-Type M Dwarfs and a Spectacular Radio Flare from the M8 Dwarf DENIS 1048-3956 2005, Astrophys. J., 626, 486-497 Burgasser, AJ & Putman, ME.

T Dwarfs and the Substellar Mass Function. I. Monte Carlo Simulations 2004, Astrophys. J. Supplement, 155, 191-207 Burgasser AJ.

The First Substellar Subdwarf? Discovery of a Metal-poor L Dwarf with Halo Kinematics 2003, Astrophys. J., 592, 1186.
Burgasser, AJ, Kirkpatrick, JD, Burrows, A, Liebert, J, Reid, IN, Gizis, JE, McGovern, MR, Prato, L, & McLean, IS.

Evidence of Cloud Disruption in the L/T Dwarf Transition 2002, Astrophys. J. Letters, 571, L151.
Burgasser, AJ, Marley, MS, Ackerman, AS, Saumon, D, Lodders, K, Dahn, CC, Harris, HC, & Kirkpatrick, JD.

The Spectra of T Dwarfs. I. Near-Infrared Data and Spectral Classification 2002, Astrophys. J., 564, 421.
Burgasser, AJ, Kirkpatrick, JD, Brown, ME, Reid, IN, Burrows, A, Liebert, J, Matthews, K, Gizis, JE, Dahn, CC, Monet, DG, Cutri, RM, & Skrutskie, MF.

Discovery of a Brown Dwarf Companion to Gliese 570ABC: A 2MASS T Dwarf Significantly Cooler than Gliese 229B 2000, Astrophys. J. Letters, 531, L57.
Burgasser, AJ, Kirkpatrick, JD, Cutri, RM, McCallon, H, Kopan, G, Gizis, JE, Liebert, J, Reid, IN, Brown, ME, Monet, DG, Dahn, CC, Beichman, CA, & Skrutskie, MF.

Discovery of Four Field Methane (T-Type) Dwarfs with the Two Micron All-Sky Survey 1999, Astrophys. J. Letters, 522, L65.
Burgasser, AJ, Kirkpatrick, JD, Brown, ME, Reid, IN, Gizis, JE, Dahn, CC, Monet, DG, Beichman, CA, Liebert, J, Cutri, RM, & Skrutskie, MF.

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