Research

I am a member of the UCLA Galactic Center Group, and I research young, massive stars that orbit the supermassive black hole (SMBH) located at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. I am interested in how these young stars formed in the turbulent environment of the Galactic Center. I am also interested in looking for binary stars near the SMBH, as their existence may explain how these peculiar stars formed. 

I use spectroscopy taken with the W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes. The Galactic Center is a very crowded, so I use the technology of adaptive optics to look at these stars.

Use the Research tab or the following links to explore more:

UCLA Galactic Center Group at W. M. Keck Observatory. Credit: UCLA Galactic Center Group

Observing at Keck Observatory headquarters

Young, massive stars orbit the central supermassive black hole. Credit: UCLA Galactic Center Group & W. M. Keck Observatory

Papers (link to NASA Astrophysics Data System)

D. S. Chu et al. "Evidence of a Decreased Binary Fraction for Massive Stars Within 20 Milliparsecs of the Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center", 2023, Astrophysical Journal

D. S. Chu et al. "Evaluating the performance of the Keck Observatory adaptive optics systems on crowded field data using different adaptive optics configurations", 2022, SPIE Proceeding.

D. S. Chu et al. "Investigating the Binarity of S0-2: Implications for Its Origins and Robustness as a Probe of the Laws of Gravity around a Supermassive Black Hole",  2018, Astrophysical Journal

A. Ciurlo,  M. R. Morris, R. D. Campbell, ... D. S. Chu et al. "Upper Limit on Brackett-gamma Emission from the Immediate Accretion Flow onto the Galactic Black Hole", 2021, Astrophysical Journal 

S. Rose, S. Naoz, A. Gautam, ... D. S. Chu et al. "On Socially Distant Neighbors: Using Binaries to Constrain the Density of Objects in the Galactic Center", 2020, Astrophysical Journal

A. Ciurlo, R. Campbell, M. Morris... D. S. Chu et al. "A population of dust-enshrouded objects orbiting the Galactic black hole", 2020, Nature

T. Do, A. Hees, A. Ghez... D. S. Chu et al. "Relativistic redshift of the star S0-2 orbiting the Galactic center supermassive black hole", 2019, Science

K. Kosmo O'Neil, G. Martinez... D. S. Chu et al. "Improving Orbit Estimates for Incomplete Orbits with a New Approach to Priors: with Applications from Black Holes to Planets", 2019,  Astronomical Journal 

K. E. Lockhart, T. Do... D. S. Chu et al. "Characterizing and Improving the Data Reduction Pipeline for the Keck OSIRIS Integral Field Spectrograph", 2019, Astronomical Journal

A. Hees, T. Do... D. S. Chu et al. "Testing General Relativity with Stellar Orbits around the Supermassive Black Hole in Our Galactic Center", 2017, Physical Review Letters

B. Buratti... D. S. Chu et al. "Photometry of Pluto 2008-2014: Evidence of Ongoing Seasonal Volatile Transport and Activity", 2015, Astrophysical Journal

G. Wegner... D. S. Chu et al. "The double galaxy cluster Abell 2465 - II. Star formation in the cluster", 2015, Astrophysical Journal