DAVID M. SMITH

Assistant Professor of Physics Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1993 Office: Room 321, Natural Sciences II Phone: (831) 459-2183 Fax: (831) 459-3043 Email: dsmith (at) scipp.ucsc.edu

Studies high-energy processes in astrophysical sources (supernova remnants, neutron star and black hole binaries, classical novae, etc.) and solar flares via their x-ray and gamma-ray emission. Participates in the design and construction of instruments to fly on spacecraft and stratospheric balloons as well as making observations with existing NASA satellites. Other interests include the use of gamma-ray observations to determine the composition of planetary surfaces and to study the fate of relativistic particles in the Earth's radiation belts.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Nuclear Astrophysics

"Limits on Reported Transient Emission Events near 0.5 MeV from the Crab and 1E 1740.7-2942" , D. M. Smith, M. Leventhal, R. Cavallo, N. Gehrels, J. Tueller, and G. Fishman, Ap. J., 458, 576 (1996)

"All-Sky Search for Transient Sources Near 0.5 MeV with the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE)" , D. M. Smith, M. Leventhal, R. Cavallo, N. Gehrels, J. Tueller, and G. Fishman, Ap. J., 471, 783 (1996)

"Galactic e+/e- Annihilation Line Radiation" , D. M. Smith, W. R. Purcell, and M. Leventhal, Proceedings of the 4th Compton Symposium, ed. C. D. Dermer, M. S. Strickman, and J. D. Kurfess, AIP Conf. Proc. 410, 208 (1997)

"The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager Observation of the 1809 keV Line from Galactic 26Al" , D. M. Smith, Ap. J. Letters 589, 55 (2003)

High-Energy Solar Physics

"The RHESSI Spectrometer" , D. M. Smith et al.; Solar Physics, 210, 33 (2002)

"High-Resolution Spectroscopy of Gamma-Ray Lines from the X-Class Solar Flare of 2002 July 23" , D. M. Smith et al., Ap. J. Letters 595, L81 (2003)

Terrestrial Radiation-Belt Physics

"High-Resolution Spectra of 20-300 keV Hard X-rays from Electron Precipitation over Antarctica" , D. M. Smith, R. P. Lin, K. A. Anderson, K. Hurley, and C. M. Johns, Journal of Geophysical Research, 100, 19,675 (1995)

"First Detection of a Terrestrial MeV X-ray Burst" , J. E. Foat, R. P. Lin, D. M. Smith, F. Fenrich, R. Millan, I. Roth, K. R. Lorentzen, M. P. McCarthy, G. K. Parks, and J. P. Treilhou, Geo. Res. Lett., 25, 4109 (1998)

"X-ray Observations of MeV Electron Precipitation with a Balloon-Borne Germanium Spectrometer" , R. M. Millan, R. P. Lin, D. M. Smith, K. R. Lorentzen, & M. P. McCarthy, Geo. Res. Lett., 29, 47 (2002)

Astrophysics of X-Ray Binaries

"XTE J1739-302: An Unusual New X-ray Transient" , D. M. Smith, D. Main, F. Marshall, J. Swank, W. A. Heindl, M. Leventhal, J. J. M. in't Zand, and J. Heise, Ap. J. Letters, 501, L181 (1998)

"A Transition to the Soft State in GRS 1758-258" , D. M. Smith, W. A. Heindl, C. B. Markwardt, and J. H. Swank, Ap. J. 544, L41 (2001)

"Two Different Long-term Behaviors in Black-Hole Candidates: Evidence for Two Accretion Flows?" , D. M. Smith, W. A. Heindl, and J. H. Swank, Ap. J., 569, 362 (2002)

"Orbital and Super-Orbital Periods of 1E 1740.7-2942 and GRS 1758-258" , D. M. Smith, W. A. Heindl, and J. H. Swank, Ap. J. Letters 578, 129