"CAREER: Astrophysics, Computers, and Education"

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AST-9702908 Abstract - J. Blondin Computers have made an important impact on both astrophysics research and education over the last several years. Numerical simulations on modern supercomputers have made great strides in our ability to do research in virtually every subfield of astrophysics, from computing chaotic planetary orbits to the models of the formation of large-scale structure in the Universe. At the same time, computers have become an ever-growing presence in our nation's classrooms. Now, with the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web, those computers are opening up the classroom to the world. This is a project to exploit this natural link between computational astrophysics and computer- based education. The educational aspect of this project will draw on a variety of different avenues, including the development of a new, computer- based astronomy lab at NCSU for non-science undergraduates, the creation of web sites intended to convey the excitement of current astrophysics research to the general public by drawing on the visually striking results of numerical simulations, the teaching on numerical methods in upper-level physics courses, and the involvement of undergraduates in computational astrophysics research. The research aspect of this project will focus on the hydrodynamics of mass and angular momentum transfer in X-ray binary stars. However, this work will have far reaching impact, for the phenomenon of mass transfer is an important process in a wide range of binary star systems. By studying X-ray pulsars, where one has a quantitative measure of both the mass and angular momentum accretion rate, one can learn about the physics of Roche lobe overflow, tidal stream impact, accretion disk formation, disk winds, and much more. Furthermore, the current wealth of observational data from satellites such as ASCA, BATSE, and XTE will greatly accelerate the progress in this fi eld over the next few years, and the numerical models generated in the proposed research will provide an important key to interpreting this new data.