Saar, Steven AST-9731652 Dr. Saar will investigate the effects of stellar magnetic and surface phenomena, such as magnetic activity, rotation, and starspots, on high-precision radial velocity measurements which are used for the detection of extra-solar planets. His goals are two-fold. By better understanding the cause of radial velocity variations due to intrinsic stellar properties, he plans to verify current extra-solar planet candidates and to provide guidance to current and future planet searches. His work will also lead to improved understanding of the interaction of magnetic fields with convection in stellar photospheres, and how convective properties vary with stellar parameters. Much of his work concentrates on performing an analysis of line bisectors from high resolution spectroscopic data of a sample of main-sequence dwarf stars which have long-term spectral observations and cover a range of basic stellar parameters in temperature, activity level, and rotation properties. ***
