Collaborative Research: High Resolution Spectroscopy and Spectro-Astrometry of Warm Gas in Herbig Ae/Be Stars: A Search for Forming Gas Giant Planets

这个研究小组将使用地面望远镜和计算机模型来探测和描述其他恒星周围圆盘上的系外行星。该团队将应用新技术来探测仍在形成过程中的气态巨行星。如果成功，这些结果将使我们能够将行星形成环境的初始条件与形成的行星类型联系起来。对我们自己的星球是如何形成的内在好奇心吸引了来自各种背景的学生进入STEM学科。参与该项目的学生将有机会利用最先进的天文台和计算建模提供的数据，在现代天体物理学的前沿之一进行研究。以前参加这个小组的学生已经将他们的经验应用到K-12教育，工业，国防，以及更传统的研究职业中。该项目还将为南卡罗来纳州立大学-克莱姆森大学桥梁项目的学生提供基于研究的学习机会，积极扩大天文学中代表性不足群体的参与。这个项目有三个主要的科学目标。(1)寻找环绕赫比格Ae/Be恒星的伴星周围的环行星盘：生成赫比格Ae/Be所有高分辨率m波段观测档案的统一地图集，寻找指示轨道伴星的可变CO发射，并获得额外观测结果。(2)寻找大质量伴星的动力学标志。(3)将该小组的热化学模型应用于观测到的OH和CO排放源，以检验OH主要来自星周盘内缘的假设。

This team will use ground-based telescopes and computer models to detect and characterize exoplanets in disks around other stars. The team will apply novel techniques to detect gas giant planets that are still in the process of forming. If successful, these results would allow us to connect the initial conditions of the planet-forming environment to the kinds of planets that form. Inherent curiosity about how our own planet came to be attracts students from all backgrounds into STEM disciplines. The students involved with this project will have the opportunity to carry out research at one of the frontiers of modern astrophysics by exploiting data available from state of the art observatories and computational modeling. Previous students involved in this group have applied their experiences to careers in K-12 education, industry, national defense, in addition to more traditional research careers. This project will also provide research-based learning opportunities for students in the South Carolina State University - Clemson University bridge program, actively broadening participation of underrepresented groups in astronomy.This program has three principal science goals. (1) Search for circumplanetary disks around companions orbiting Herbig Ae/Be stars: generate a uniform atlas of all archival high resolution M-band observations of Herbig Ae/Be, search for variable CO emission indicative of an orbiting companion, and obtain additional observations. (2) Search for dynamical markers of massive substellar companions. (3) Apply this group's thermochemical model to sources with observed OH and CO emission to test the hypothesis that OH primarily arises from the inner rim of circumstellar disks.