Understanding How Stars Form in the Building Blocks of Galaxies - Gas Dynamics in Dwarf Galaxies and Star Clusters

Jill Palmer Naiman女士被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在哈佛大学天体物理学中心开展研究和教育项目。她的研究将主要集中在小星系和星团中恒星是如何形成的。由于恒星是宇宙中发光物质的基本单位，直接或间接地对我们所观察到的大部分现象负责，因此了解恒星是如何形成的在天体物理学中至关重要。此外，星系的形成是分层的——像矮星系这样的小东西合并成更大的东西，最终形成像我们银河系这样的物体。奈曼女士的研究将使用气体的三维模拟来模拟恒星如何在小型天体物理系统中形成，以确定这些物体如何成为我们今天观察到的东西，以及它们的恒星形成历史如何影响我们更大的银河系中形成的恒星数量。除了她的研究工作外，Naiman女士还将开展她目前参与的几项外展活动。她将继续通过监狱教育项目向囚犯教授STEM课程，将科学家和艺术家团体聚集在一起，将复杂的天体物理模拟可视化，以供公众教育和享受，并将继续教学和指导学生。奈曼将进行理论研究，主要涉及数值模拟，旨在了解触发恒星形成所需的大量供应条件，重点是在星系和星团的大尺度上发生的过程。奈曼女士将使用三维视图和对微观物理学的完整描述，包括流体力学、恒星和辐射反馈以及外部引力扰动，来测试我们对球状星团中恒星形成的理解。这些知识也将应用于与星系矮星系中的气体保留和恒星形成有关的问题。核星团中气体滞留对中心大质量黑洞进料速率的影响也将被研究。除了她的研究工作，作者还将通过波士顿地区和哈佛校园的机会和项目继续进行一些推广活动。将在现有行之有效的活动基础上开展三项教育和公众宣传活动。首先，一项教育计划旨在将计算机科学家和学生在视觉艺术和数字媒体方面的培训结合起来，使用最先进的天体物理模拟作为共同点。作为监狱教育项目的讲师，奈曼女士还将通过基于探究的方法向波士顿的囚犯讲授将天文学概念融入数学教育的课程。最后，内曼女士将继续担任研究导师的角色，为代表性不足的本科生提供指导。

Ms. Jill Palmer Naiman is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University. Her research will focus predominately on how stars form in small galaxies and star clusters. As stars are the fundamental units of luminous matter in the universe, being responsible, directly or indirectly, for most of what we observe, it is of central importance in astrophysics to understand how stars form. Furthermore, galaxy formation is hierarchical - small things like dwarf galaxies merge to become bigger things, and eventually, objects like our galaxy. Ms. Naiman's research will use three dimensional simulations of gas to model how stars will form in small astrophysical systems in order to determine both how these objects became what we observe today, and how their star formation histories could have affected the amount of stars which formed in our larger Milky Way galaxy. In addition to her research efforts Ms. Naiman will grow several outreach activities in which she currently participates. She will continue teaching STEM classes to inmates through the Prison Education Project, bring together groups of scientists and artists to visualize complex astrophysical simulations for the education and enjoyment of the public, and will continue teaching and mentoring students.Ms. Naiman will carry out a theoretical investigation, chiefly involving numerical simulations, aimed at understanding the mass supply conditions required for triggering star formation, with an emphasis on processes occurring at large scales in both galaxies and star clusters. Using a three-dimensional view and a complete description of the microphysics including hydrodynamics, stellar and radiative feedback and external gravitational perturbations Ms. Naiman will test our understanding of star formation in globular clusters. This knowledge will also be applied to issues related to gas retention and star formation in galactic dwarf galaxies. The effects of gas retention in nuclear star clusters on the feeding rates of central, massive black holes will also be studied. In addition to her research efforts the author will continue several outreach activities through the opportunities and programs available in the Boston area and the Harvard campus. Three education and public outreach activities will be carried out, which build on existing proven activities. First, an educational program will aim to intermingle the training of computational scientists and students in the visual arts and digital media using state-of-art astrophysical simulations as common ground. As an instructor in the Prison Education Project, Ms. Naiman will also teach courses incorporating astronomy concepts into math education through inquiry based methods to Boston inmates. Finally, Ms. Naiman will continue her role as a research mentor to underrepresented undergraduates.