Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Pages
William D. Heacox
B.A., Whitman College, 1964
M.A., Washington State University, 1972
Ph.D., University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1977
Research
Professional Papers and Publications
Referreed or Invited
W. D. Heacox, Statistical Characteristics of Extrasolar Planetary Transits , J. Geophys. Res., 101:14,815 (1996)
W. D. Heacox, Of Logarithms, Binary Orbits, and Self-Replicating Distributions , Pub. Astron. Soc. Pacific 108:591 (1996)
W. D. Heacox, Statistical Kinematics of Nonrotating Globular Clusters , Astrophys. J. 490:263 (1997)
W. D. Heacox, Nonparametric Statistical Models of Spherically Symmetric Kinematics , Astrophys. J. Supp. 114:121 (1998)
W. D. Heacox, Statistical Dynamics of Solar-like Binaries , Astron. J. 115:325 (1998)
W. D. Heacox, On the Nature of Low-Mass Companions to Solar-Like Stars , Astrophys. J. 526:928 (1999)
W. D. Heacox, Galactic Cepheid Distances and Luminosities, and Period-Luminosity Relation, from Hipparcos Proper Motions and Parallaxes, Astrophys. J. (submitted, 2006)
W. D. Heacox, Microlens Mass Functions , Astron. J. (submitted, 2006)
Non Referreed
W. D. Heacox, Statistical Distributions of Binary Orbital Dynamic Characteristics , in The Third Pacific Rim Conference on Recent Development on Binary Star Research , ASP Conf. Pub. 130:13 (1997)
W. D. Heacox, Nonparametric Statistical Models of Globular Cluster Dynamics , in Impact of Modern Dynamics in Astronomy , IAU Colloquium 172, Kluwer, p. 401 (1999)
W. D. Heacox, Some Observational Constraints on Binary Star Formation , in Birth and Evolution of Binary Stars , IAU Symp. 200, p. 208 (2000)
W. D. Heacox, Have We Discovered Other Planetary Systems? , in Bioastronomy '99: A New Era in Bioastronomy , ASP Conf. Pub. 213:113 (2000)
W. D. Heacox, The Galactic Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation from Hipparcos Parallaxes and Proper Motions, in Variable Stars in the Local Group , IAU Coll. 193, p. 547 (2004)
W. D. Heacox, Extraction of Sub-Milliarcsecond Parallaxes from Hipparcos Data , in Astrometry in the Age of the Next Generation of Large Telescopes , ASP Conf. Pub. 338:232 (2005)
Current Research
Formation and early orbital evolution of binary star and planetary systems.
Internal dynamics of globular clusters
Galactic Cepheid luminosities
Statistical astronomy
Research in these areas is funded by individual research grants from
NASA and NSF.
Related Professional Activities
Frequent reviewer of submitted articles to Astronomical Journal, Astrophysical Journal, Journal of Geophysical Research, and Journal of Applied Mathematics.
Invited panel participant in grant proposal reviews for NASA research
programs: Astronomical Data, Astrophysical Theory, Long-Term Space Astrophysics;
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.
Synergistic Activities:
• Original development (with Kristoff Serkowski) of the use of step-index optical fibers to optically couple astronomical telescopes to spectrographs, in order to increase wavelength (and radial velocity) precision; beginning with the first such instrument (a radial-velocity echelle spectrograph) at the University of Arizona in the late 1970's. The technique is the one later used by M. Mayor and colleagues to discover the first extrasolar planet.
• Development of the technique of nonparametric statistical modeling in application to a wide variety of problems in modern observational astronomy, including the formation and evolution of binary star and planetary systems; the internal dynamics and mass distribution of globular clusters; the use of Hipparcos parallaxes in refining the Galactic Cepheid distance scale; and the analysis of the MACHO mass function as revealed by microlensing searches.
Recent Grants
Nonparametric Statistical Models of Astronomical Systems , NASA NAG 8-994, 6/1994-6/1999, $252,000
Observational Constraints on Binary Star Formation , NSF AST 95-26034, 6/1996-6/1999, $89,000
Analysis of Hipparcos Marginal Parallaxes and the Galactic Cepheid Distance Scale, NASA NAG 5-9042, 3/2000 – 3/2002, $45,000
Statistical Modeling of Microlens Masses , NSF AST-0205754, 6/2002-5/2003, $35,000
Acquisition of a Small Astronomical Observatory on Mauna Kea , NSF/MRI AST-0216493, 1/2003 - 12/2006, $651,000
Curricular Enhancements in Exo-planet Theory and Observation , Michelson
Science Center Education Award, 9/2004-8/2006, $72,000