UCLA

This dissertation combines near-infrared spectroscopic and astrometric analysis of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs with instrumentation work to upgrade the NIRSPEC spectrometer for the Keck II Telescope. The scientific goals of my thesis are to discover and characterize the physical properties of brown dwarfs, the lowest-mass (<0.08 M_sun) products of the star formation process. These relatively cold objects (T_eff < 2500K, compared to T_Sun ~5800K) emit the bulk of their light in the infrared. Project I of my thesis used near-infrared spectroscopy from NIRSPEC to study the surface gravities of 228 low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the NIRSPEC Brown Dwarf Spectroscopic Survey (Martin et al., 2017). Project II utilizes imaging data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to study the coldest and lowest-mass brown dwarfs. I measure distances to 22 late-T and Y dwarfs and use those distances to measure absolute physical properties. Project III encompasses my work to upgrade the NIRSPEC instrument and compliments my scientific research interests. My work on the upgrade includes project management, infrared detector characterization and testing, optical design of the new slit-viewing camera, electronics design, and mechanical testing and prototyping (see Martin et al., 2014, 2016).