Kendrah Murphy
Assistant Professor

Office: Dana Science Center 232
Tel: 518-580-8121
Email: kmurphy1@skidmore.edu

Education

• B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Skidmore College
• M.A., Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University
• Ph.D., Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University

Research Interests

Professor Murphy’s doctoral research focused on observational and theoretical aspects of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN).  She has since worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kavli Institute of Astrophysics and Space Research.  Her research interests include: the analysis, interpretation, and modeling of X-ray data; Monte Carlo and numerical simulations of transmission and reflection (Compton scattering) in obscuring matter in AGN; the construction of spectral fitting routines using Monte Carlo simulations to model the putative torus in AGN; and numerical analyses of photons in Kerr metric to investigate observational measures of black-hole spin and emission line diagnostics.

Courses

• General Physics I and II
• Mechanics
• Electricity and Magnetism

Selected Publications

NGC 2992 in an X-ray high state observed by XMM: Response of the Relativistic Fe Kalpha Line to the Continuum,  Shu, X. W., Yaqoob, T., Murphy, K. D., Braito, V., Wang, J. X., & Zheng, W., 2010, ApJ,in press.

On the efficiency of production of the Fe K? emission line in neutral matter Yaqoob, T., Murphy, K. D., Miller, L., & Turner, T. J., 2010, MNRAS, 401, 411.

Broad-Band Soft X-ray Polarimetry,Marshall, H. L., Heilmann, R., Schultz, N., & K. D. Murphy 2009, in conf. proc. “The Coming of Age of X-ray Polarimetry”, in press, arXiv:0908.0677.

An X-ray spectral model for Compton-thick toroidal reprocessors Murphy, K. D. & Yaqoob, T. 2009, MNRAS, 397, 1549.

On the Prospect of Constraining Black Hole Spin Through X-ray Spectroscopy of Hotspots, Murphy, K. D., Yaqoob, T., Karas, V., & Dovˇciak, M. 2009, ApJ, 701, 635.

NGC 2992 in an X-ray high state observed by XMM-Newton: Response of the relativistic Fe K®line to the continuum, Shu, X. W., Yaqoob, T., Murphy, K. D., Braito, V., Wang, J. X., & Zheng, W. 2009, ApJ,in press.

On the efficiency of production of the Fe K® emission line in neutral matter Yaqoob, T.,Murphy, K. D., Miller, L., & Turner, T. J. 2009, MNRAS, in press, arXiv:0909.0899

Monitoring the Violent Activity from the Inner Accretion Disk of the Seyfert 1.9 Galaxy NGC 2992 with RXTE, Murphy, K. D., Yaqoob, T., & Terashima, Y. 2007, ApJ, 666, 96.

Precision Fe K® and Fe K¯ Line Spectroscopy of the Seyfert 1.9 Galaxy NGC 2992 with Suzaku, Yaqoob, T., Murphy, K. D., Griffiths, G. E., Yoshito, H., Hajime, I., Takeshi, I., Kelley, R., Motohide, K., Markowitz, A., Mushotzky, R., et al. 2007, PASJ, 59, 283.

Non-Linear Effects in Transition Edge Sensors for X-ray Detection Bandler, S. R., Figueroa-Feliciano, E., Iyomoto, N., Kelley, R. L., Kilbourne, C. A, Murphy, K. D., Porter, F. S., Saab, T., & Sadleir, J. 2006, NIMPA, 559, 817.

Position-Sensitive Transition Edge Sensors, Iyomoto, N., Bandler, S. R., Brekosky, R. P., Chervenak, J. A., Figueroa-Feliciano, E., Finkbeiner, F. M., Kelley, R. L., Kilbourne, C. A., Lindeman, M. A., Murphy, K., Porter,F.S., Saab, T., Sadleir, J. E., & Talley, D. J. 2006, NIMPA, 559, 49.