We are members of the Galactic Center Group at UCLA. In the muLab, we focus on the following Galactic Center science cases and methodologies:
Dynamics and Initial Mass Function (IMF) of Young Nuclear Cluster
Improved astrometry for stellar orbits and binary searches
Gravitational lensing by stellar mass black holes and the supermassive black hole
A complete list of papers for the Galactic Center Group, including muLab members, can be found here. Those listed below had major involvement or were led by muLab members.
Dynamics and Initial Mass Function (IMF) of the Young Nuclear Cluster:
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We measure the IMF as a probe for how the star formation process changes in this environment.
Current Members at Berkeley: Jessica Lu, Ruoyi Yin, Andrea Ghez (UCLA), Tuan Do (UCLA), and the UCLA Galactic Center Group, Ningyuan Xu
Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy III: The Dynamical Sub-structures (Jia, Xu et al. 2023)
Properties of the Remnant Clockwise Disk of Young Stars in the Galactic Center (Yelda et al. 2014)
Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of the Galaxy. II. The Initial Mass Function (Lu et al. 2013)
Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of the Galaxy. I. A New Method for Constructing Luminosity Functions and Surface-density Profiles (Do et al. 2013)
A Disk of Young Stars at the Galactic Center as Determined by Individual Stellar Orbits (Lu et al. 2009)
Improved astrometry for stellar orbit in the Galactic Center:
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Improved astrometry can be achieved from transforming astrometric and photometric data of stars into a common coordinate system, deriving better measurements for positionsm, proper motions, accelerations and thus orbits.
MemberCurrent Members at Berkeley: Jessica Lu, Shoko Sakai (UCLA), and the UCLA Galactic Center Group , Sean Terry