Image Credit: NASA

I graduated with my PhD in Physics in August 2021, where I conducted research on Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) with my advisor Dr. Davide Lazzati. Currently, I am a postdoctoral research assistant for the Swift GRB observatory where I act as a mission operations scientist for the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and continue my research on GRB prompt emission mechanisms. This unique position places me at the nexus of GRB theory and observation allowing me to leverage my theoretical knowledge with the instumental knowledge that I have gained as a BAT scientist and vice versa. Creating a synergy between these two areas of GRB science is where my interests and research lies.

Below are some of the projects that I have and are currently working on. Click on each header to get more information on each project.

My projects can also be found on Research Gate at: researchgate.net/profile/Tyler_Parsotan

Many of the software that I have developed are open source and can be found on my Github: https://github.com/parsotat

Research

Monte Carlo Radiation Transfer through Gamma Ray Bursts

The left panel of the video shows photons, in red, being injected into and propagating through a Gamma Ray Burst outflow, plotted in purple/blue. The top right panel shows how the spectrum of those photons change as the photons interact with the matter in the jet. The bottom right panel shows the average temperatures of the photons, in red, and the matter surrounding the photons, in blue.
Research

Predicting GRB Spectro-polarimetric Signatures

This video shows the total power of the MCRaT code. We are able to produce mock observed time resolved and time integrated spectra and polarizations which can be compared to observations. Additionally, the underlying hydrodynamically simulated jet dynamics can be mapped to the mock observed quantities of interest allowing us to get a deeper look into how the GRB jet affects the produced radiation signature.
Research

Swift Burst Alert Telescope Data Pipelines

Credit: Spectrum and NASA E/PO, Sonoma State University, Aurore Simonnet The Swift observatory is a one-of-a-kind observatory that allows quick followup of detected Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in optical and X-ray energies. On board the observatory is the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) which is a coded aperture instrument which detects GRBs and localizes them to a small area of the sky. This allows the spacecraft to change its orientation so the other two instruments, XRT and UVOT, can begin observations of the GRB.
Research

Determining How AGN Affect the Sizes of Galaxies

The upper panel shows the workflow of this research project, and the lower panel shows an example of the process for an individual galaxy. The three images show the transformation of a B-band galaxy image from dust-free image (left), to dust-attenuated image produced using radiative transfer (center), to the convolved image projected onto the HST 0.06" drizzled pixel scale (right; beam size shown in white). The right-hand image includes background correlated noise that would be observed in the rest-frame B-band at the HST WFC/IR angular resolution.
Research

Peak Energy - Isotropic Luminosity Tracking

This figure shows the light curves, plotted in black, and the time resolved peak energies, shown in red, for various Gamma Ray Bursts observed by the FERMI satellite. Some of the Gamma Ray Bursts exhibit a hard-to-soft peak energy evolution; however, for some Gamma Ray Bursts, the peak energy follows the evolution of the light curve. This figure is from the following paper: A&A 588, A135 (2016) DOI: 10.
Research

Polarization Signatures in GRBs

Time integrated polarization, polarization angle, and light curve peak luminosity as a function of observer viewing angle for 2 synthetic GRBs that we used the MCRaT code on. The MCRaT code had been improved by implementing the full Klein-Nishina scattering cross section and polarization through the Stokes parameters. These additions to the code allow us to simulate the time integrated and time resolved polarization expected from relativistic outflows.