Star Formation in Galaxies

天文学的一个主要研究主题是恒星是如何从星际气体云的引力坍塌中形成的。首席调查员(PI)希望扩展美国国家科学基金会支持的关于在重力和自转相互影响下对原星进行数值模拟的早期研究。PI将使用复杂的新数值技术来计算二维和三维模型。模型将被计算以在时间上“跟踪”这种坍塌，特别关注微小的密度波动的发展，这些波动最终可能成长为行星或次要恒星。NSF的支持将包括购买一个计算机工作站，以便可以在广泛的测试条件下“实时”跟踪模拟坍塌的电影。这些结果有望加深我们对原恒星如何在坍塌过程中失去角动量的理解，并确定导致两颗独立的“双星”形成的条件。

A major topic of study in astronomy concerns the way in which stars are formed from the gravitational collapse of interstellar gas clouds. The Principal Investigator (PI) wishes to extend earlier studies supported by the NSF of numerical simulations of proto- star under the mutual influence of gravity and rotation. The PI will use sophisticated new numerical techniques to compute models in two and three dimensions. Models will be computed to "follow" this collapse in time, with particular attention to the development of minor density fluctuations which could grow ultimately into planets or a secondary star. NSF support will include the purchase of a computer workstation so that movies of simulated collapses can be followed in "real time" over a wide range of test conditions. These results are expected to increase our understanding of how proto-stars lose angular momentum during their collapse and to define the conditions leading to the formation of two separate "binary" stars.