James Kirk
I am a 4th year PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick. My supervisor is Dr. Peter Wheatley.
Research
My research concerns the detection and characterisation of transiting exoplanets. I am the PI of the Low Resolution Ground-Based Exoplanet Atmosphere Survey using Transmission Spectroscopy (LRG-BEASTS) programme.
My current main focus is on the atmospheric characterisation of hot Jupiters through ground based transmission spectroscopy using the ULTRACAM and ACAM instruments at the WHT and EFOSC on the NTT.
On the detection side I work with data from SuperWASP, K2 and NGTS.
Schematic Transmission Spectrum for a transiting hot Jupiter. Image credit: ESA w/ adaptations by David Sing.
Captain's Log: Publications
First author
LRG-BEASTS III: Ground-based transmission spectrum of the gas giant orbiting the cool dwarf WASP-80; J. Kirk, P. J. Wheatley, T. Louden, I. Skillen, G. W. King, J. McCormac, P. G. J. Irwin, MNRAS 474, 876 (2018), arXiv:1710.10083
Rayleigh scattering in the transmission spectrum of HAT-P-18b; J. Kirk, P. J. Wheatley, T. Louden, A. P. Doyle, I. Skillen, J. McCormac, P. G. J. Irwin, R. Karjalainen, MNRAS 468, 3907 (2017)
Transmission spectroscopy of the inflated exoplanet WASP-52b, and evidence for a bright region on the stellar surface; J. Kirk, P. J. Wheatley, T. Louden, S. P. Littlefair, C. M. Copperwheat, D. J. Armstrong, T. R. Marsh, V. S. Dhillon, MNRAS 463, 2922 (2016)
Other
The XUV environments of exoplanets from Jupiter-size to super-Earth; George W. King, Peter J. Wheatley, Michael Salz, Vincent Bourrier, Stefan Czesla, David Ehrenreich, James Kirk, Alain Lecavelier des Etangs, Tom Louden, Jürgen Schmitt, P. Christian Schneider, MNRAS, in press (2018)
An Earth-sized exoplanet with a Mercury-like composition; A. Santerne, B. Brugger; Armstrong, D. J.; Adibekyan, V.; Lillo-Box, J.; Gosselin, H.; Aguichine, A.; Almenara, J. -M.; Barrado, D.; Barros, S. C. C.; Bayliss, D.; Boisse, I.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bouchy, F.; Brown, D. J. A.; Deleuil, M.; Delgado Mena, E.; Demangeon, O.; Díaz, R. F.; Doyle, A. Dumusque, X.; Faedi, F.; Faria, J. P.; Figueira, P.; Foxell, E.; Giles, H.; Hébrard, G.; Hojjatpanah, S.; Hobson, M.; Jackman, J.; King, G.; Kirk, J.; Lam, K. W. F.; Ligi, R.; Lovis, C.; Louden, T.; McCormac, J.; Mousis, O.; Neal, J. J.; Osborn, H. P.; Pepe, F.; Pollacco, D.; Santos, N. C.; Sousa, S. G.; Udry, S.; Vigan, A., Nature Astronomy, 2, 393 (2018)
A precise optical transmission spectrum of the inflated exoplanet WASP-52b; Tom Louden, Peter J. Wheatley, Patrick G. J. Irwin, James Kirk, Ian Skillen, MNRAS 470, 742, (2017)
From Dense Hot Jupiter to Low Density Neptune: The Discovery of WASP-127b, WASP-136b and WASP-138b; Lam, K. W. F.; Faedi, F.; Brown, D. J. A.; Anderson, D. R.; Delrez, L.; Gillon, M.; Hébrard, G.; Lendl, M.; Mancini, L.; Southworth, J.; Smalley, B.; Triaud, A. H. M.; Turner, O. D.; Hay, K. L.; Armstrong, D. J.; Barros, S. C. C.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bouchy, F.; Boumis, P.; Collier Cameron, A. Doyle, A. P.; Hellier, C.; Henning, T.; Jehin, E.; King, G.; Kirk, J.; Louden, T.; Maxted, P. F. L.; McCormac, J. J.; Osborn, H. P.; Palle, E.; Pepe, F.; Pollacco, D.; Prieto-Arranz, J.; Queloz, D.; Rey, J.; Ségransan, D.; Udry, S.; Walker, S.; West, R. G.; Wheatley, P. J., A&A 599 3L, (2017)
K2-110 b: a massive mini-Neptune exoplanet; H. P. Osborn, A. Santerne, S. C. C. Barros, D. J. Armstrong, N. C. Santos, S. Hojjatpanah, O. Demangeon, V. Adibekyan, J.M. Almenara, D. Barrado, D. Bayliss, I. Boisse, F. Bouchy, D. J. A. Brown, M. Deleuil, E. Delgado Mena, G. Hébrard, J. Kirk, G. W. King, K. W. F. Lam, J. Lillo-Box, T. M. Louden, C. Lovis, M. Marmier, J. McCormac, D. Pollacco, S. G. Sousa, S. Udry, S. R. Walker, A&A 604,19, (2017)
Broad-band spectrophotometry of HAT-P-32 b: Search for a scattering signature in the planetary spectrum; M. Mallonn, I. Bernt, E. Herrero, S. Hoyer, J. Kirk, P. J. Wheatley, M. Seeliger, F. Mackebrandt, C. von Essen, K. G. Strassmeier, T. Granzer, A. Künstler, V. S. Dhillon, T. R. Marsh, J. Gaitan, MNRAS 463, 604 (2016)
EPIC211089792 b: an aligned and inflated hot jupiter in a young visual binary; A. Santerne, G. Hébrard, J. Lillo-Box, D. J. Armstrong, S. C. C. Barros, O. Demangeon, D. Barrado, A. Debackere, M. Deleuil, E. Delgado Mena, M. Montalto, D. Pollacco, H. P. Osborn, S. G. Sousa, L. Abe, V. Adibekyan, J.-M. Almenara, P. André, G. Arlic, G. Barthe, P. Bendjoya, R. Behrend, I. Boisse, F. Bouchy, H. Boussier, M. Bretton, D. J. A. Brown, B. Carry, A. Cailleau, E. Conseil, B. Courcol, B. Dauchet, J.-C. Dalouzy, M. Deldem, P. Dubreuil, J.-M. Fehrenbach, S. Ferratfiat, R. Girelli, J. Gregorio, S. Jaecques, F. Kugel, J. Kirk, O. Labrevoir, J.-C. Lachurié, K. W. F. Lam, P. Le Guen, P. Martinez, L. Maurin, J. McCormac, J-B. Pioppa, U. Quadri, A. Rajpurohit, J. Rey, J.-P. Rivet, R. Roy, N. C. Santos, F. Signoret, L. Strabla, O. Suarez, D. Toublanc, M. Tsantaki, P. A. Wilson, M. Bachschmidt, F. Colas, O. Gerteis, P. Louis, J.-C. Mario, C. Marlot, J. Montier, V. Perroud, V. Pic, D. Romeuf, S. Ubaud, D. Verilhac, ApJ 824, 55S (2016)
EPIC210957318 b and EPIC212110888 b: two inflated hot-Jupiters around Solar-type stars; J. Lillo-Box, O. Demangeon, A. Santerne, S.C.C. Barros, D. Barrado, G. Hébrard, H.P. Osborn, D.J. Armstrong, J.-M. Almenara, I. Boisse, F. Bouchy, D.J.A. Brown, B. Courcol, M. Deleuil, E. Delgado Mena, R.F. Díaz, J. Kirk, K.W.F. Lam, J. McCormac, D. Pollacco, A. Rajpurohit, J. Rey, N.C. Santos, S.G. Sousa, M. Tsantaki, P. A. Wilson, A&A Letters 594, 7 (2016)
Single Transit Candidates from K2: Detection and Period Estimation; H.P. Osborn, D.J. Armstrong, D.J.A. Brown, J. McCormac, A.P. Doyle, T.M. Louden, J. Kirk, J.J. Spake, K.W.F. Lam, S.R. Walker, F. Faedi, D.L. Pollacco, MNRAS 457, 2273 (2016)
K2 Variable Catalogue II: Machine Learning Classification of Variable Stars and Eclipsing Binaries in K2 Fields 0-4; D. J. Armstrong, J. Kirk, K. W. F. Lam, J. McCormac, H. P. Osborn, J. Spake, S. Walker, D. J. A. Brown, M. H. Kristiansen, D. Pollacco, R. West, P. J. Wheatley, MNRAS 456, 2260 (2016)
WASP-135b: a highly irradiated, inflated hot Jupiter orbiting a G5V star; J. J. Spake, D. J. A. Brown, A. P. Doyle, G. Hébrard, J. McCormac, D. J. Armstrong, D. Pollacco, Y. G. M. Chew, D. R. Anderson, S. C. C. Barros, F. Bouchy, P. Boumis, G. Bruno, A. Collier Cameron, B. Courcol, G. R. Davies, F. Faedi, C. Hellier, J. Kirk, K. W. F. Lam, A. Liakos, T. Louden, P. F. L. Maxted, H. P. Osborn, E. Palle, J. P. Arranz, S. Udry, S. R. Walker, R. G. West, P. J. Wheatley, PASP 128, 4401S (2015)
Photodynamical mass determination of the multiplanetary system K2-19; Barros, S. C. C. ; Almenara, J. M. ; Demangeon, O. ; Tsantaki, M. ; Santerne, A. ; Armstrong, D. J. ; Barrado, D. ; Brown, D. ; Deleuil, M. ; Lillo-Box, J. ; Osborn, H. ; Pollacco, D. ; Abe, L. ; Andre, P. ; Bendjoya, P. ; Boisse, I. ; Bonomo, A. S. ; Bouchy, F. ; Bruno, G. ; Cerda, J. Rey ; Courcol, B. ; Díaz, R. F. ; Hébrard, G. ; Kirk, J. ; Lachurié, J. C. ; Lam, K. W. F. ; Martinez, P. ; McCormac, J. ; Moutou, C. ; Rajpurohit, A. ; Rivet, J. -P. ; Spake, J. ; Suarez, O. ; Toublanc, D. ; Walker, S. R., MNRAS 454, 4267 (2015)
Catalogue of Be/X-ray binary systems in the Small Magellanic Cloud: X-ray, optical & IR properties; M.J. Coe, J. Kirk, MNRAS 452, 969 (2015)
K2 Variable Catalogue: Variable Stars and Eclipsing Binaries in K2 Campaigns 1 and 0; D. J. Armstrong, J. Kirk, K. W. F. Lam, J. McCormac, S. R. Walker, D. J. A. Brown, H. P. Osborn, D. L. Pollacco, J. Spake, A&A 579, 19 (2015)
One of the closest exoplanet pairs to the 3:2 Mean Motion Resonance: K2-19b & c; D. J. Armstrong, A. Santerne, D. Veras, S. C. C. Barros, O. Demangeon, J. Lillo-Box, J. McCormac, H. P. Osborn, M. Tsantaki, J-M. Almenara, D. Barrado, I. Boisse, A. S. Bonomo, F. Bouchy, D. J. A. Brown, G. Bruno, J. R. Cerda, B. Courcol, M. Deleuil, R. F. Díaz, A. P. Doyle, G. Hébrard, J. Kirk, K. W. F. Lam, D. L. Pollacco, A. Rajpurohit, J. Spake, S. R. Walker, A&A 582, 33 (2015)
K2 Variable Catalogue I: A Catalogue of Variable Stars from K2 Field 0; D. J. Armstrong, H. P. Osborn, D. J. A. Brown, J. Kirk, K. W. F. Lam, D. L. Pollacco, J. Spake, S. R. Walker, arXiv:1411.6830 (2014)
Posters & Conference Talks
Characterising exoplanet atmospheres as part of the LRG-BEASTS survey; Poster presented at UK Exoplanet Community Meeting, University of Oxford, March 2018.
Characterising exoplanet atmospheres as part of the LRG-BEASTS survey; Dissertation talk presented at the 231st Meeting of the AAS, Washington DC, January 2018.
LRG-BEASTS: The Low Resolution Ground-Based Exoplanet Atmosphere Survey using Transmission Spectroscopy; Poster presented at the Transiting Exoplanets Conference, Keele University, July 2017
Rayleigh scattering in the atmosphere of HAT-P-18b; J. Kirk & P. J. Wheatley. Poster presented at UK Exoplanet Community Meeting, St. Andrews, March 2017.
Transmission Spectroscopy using ULTRACAM; J. Kirk & P. J. Wheatley. Conference talk at UK Exoplanet Community Meeting, Exeter, March 2016.
Transmission Spectroscopy of WASP-52b; J. Kirk & P. J. Wheatley. Conference talk at National Astronomy Meeting, Llandudno, July 2015.
Transmission Spectroscopy of WASP-52b; J. Kirk & P. J. Wheatley. Poster presented at UK Exoplanet Community Meeting, Warwick, April 2015.
Characterizing the Protostars in the Herschel Survey of Cygnus-X; J. Kirk, J. L. Hora, H. A. Smith, Herschel Cygnus-X Group. Poster presented at 223rd Meeting of the AAS, Washington DC, January 2014.
