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Abstract
Neutron stars are at the center of modern time domain astronomy. They are often invoked to explain the most luminous, and explosive transients, such as magnetar giant flares, fast radio bursts, kilonovae, and gamma-ray bursts. In my thesis, I studied neutron stars both in our Galaxy and at cosmological distances, as these separate populations probe the formation and evolution of a variety of high energy transients.
In the first half of my thesis, I analyzed X-ray observations obtained as part of the Swift Deep Galactic Plane Survey, a NuSTAR Legacy Project and Swift Key Project, covering 40 square degrees of the Galactic Plane between 10<|l|<30 deg and |b|<0.5 deg. The goal of the DGPS is to produce a rich sample of new sources and transients, while also covering a broad discovery space. I present the first catalog of X-ray sources discovered through the Survey and discuss the classification of two individual sources, a high-mass X-ray binary and a cataclysmic variable, discovered through Survey operations.
The second half of my thesis was aimed at studying the host galaxies and environments of short duration gamma-ray bursts. Short gamma-ray bursts were unambiguously connected to binary NS mergers through the simultaneous detection of GW170817 and GRB 170817A. As such, short gamma-ray bursts play a significant role in astrophysics with far-reaching implications, from the rate of detectable gravitational wave events to the production of heavy elements in the Universe. Their environments and distance scales yield important information as to their progenitors and their formation channels. In particular, I used the early X-ray afterglows of Swift short gamma-ray bursts to probe the density of their surrounding environments and, moreover, I carried out an extensive observational campaign to study the host galaxies of 31 short GRBs.
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