3D radiative transfer studies of HII/PDR complexes in star-forming galaxies

在我们自己的星系和其他星系中，每一代新恒星都有助于丰富星际介质（ISM）中的重元素。随着时间的推移，这些可能以气体或尘埃粒子的形式注入的重元素，以及携带它们的流出物，逐渐改变了新恒星和行星形成的方式，以及星系本身的整体特性。对恒星形成和星系的ISM演化及其相互作用有了更深入的了解，为大量国际设施的建设提供了动力，包括VLT、ALMA、斯皮策太空望远镜、赫歇尔太空天文台和詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜。这些任务将使我们获得前所未有的空间和光谱分辨率的观测。由于这些惊人的观测进展，我们非常需要理论工具，使我们能够正确地解释我们将收到的大量观测数据：本提案中概述的研究旨在为社区提供最先进的自一致的三维辐射传输和化学建模工具，该工具将能够模拟和拟合来自我们自己和其他星系恒星形成区域的多波长光度和光谱高分辨率数据。这一研究计划的成果将成为即将到来的任务（如赫歇尔、ALMA和JWST）的准备科学的重要组成部分。

Each new generation of stars in our own and other galaxies contributes to the enrichment of the interstellar medium (ISM) in heavy elements. Over time, these heavy elements, which may be injected as gas or dust particles, and the outflows that carry them, progressively modify the way that new stars and planets form, as well as the overall properties of the galaxies themselves. Gaining a greater understanding of star formation and the ISM evolution of galaxies, and their interplay, has provided the motivation for the construction of a large number of international facilities, including the VLT, ALMA, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Herschel Space Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope. These missions will give us access to observations of unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution. Due to these dramatic observational advances, there is a distinct need for theoretical tools that will allow us to correctly interpret the wealth of observational data that we will receive: the research outlined in this proposal aims to provide the community with a state-of-the-art self-consistent 3-dimensional radiative transfer and chemical modelling tool which will be able to simulate and fit multi-wavelength photometric and spectroscopic high resolution data from star forming regions in our own and other galaxies. The products of this plan of research will form an essential part of the preparatory science for upcoming missions, such as Herschel, ALMA and the JWST.