Massive Star Formation

我有兴趣从事一个涉及大质量恒星形成物理学的项目。目前，这一领域的恒星形成理论还没有得到很好的理解。两种主要的形成模型——竞争吸积和核心吸积——在描述大质量恒星形成过程时都存在挑战。在竞争性吸积中，大质量恒星的成长是由周围气体团块向原恒星的吸积所支持的。这似乎是一个缓慢的过程，在引力坍缩的区域效果最好，并且可能被恒星反馈打乱。相比之下，核心吸积是低质量恒星形成过程的延伸，而高质量恒星是由质量为M > ~ 8 M的分子团坍缩形成的，它们产生的初始质量函数应该反映核心质量函数。然而，这里的一个关键问题是，是什么阻止了质量更高的团块在坍缩时进一步破碎？我很高兴能在博士课程中进一步研究这些问题。

I would be interested in pursuing a project involving the physics of massive star formation. Currently, this area of star formation theory is not well understood. The two main formation models - Competitive Accretion and Core Accretion - both have challenges in describing the process of massive star formation. In competitive accretion, the growth of the massive star is supported by the accretion of ambient gas clumps onto a protostar. It appears to be a slow process which works best in regions of gravitational collapse, and is can be disrupted by stellar feedback. In comparison, core accretion is an extension of the low-mass star formation process, and high-mass stars form from the collapse of molecular clumps of mass M > 8 M. The initial mass function they produce should reflect the core mass function. However, a key question here is what prevents higher mass clumps from further fragmenting as they collapse? I would be excited to investigate these problems further over the course of a PhD.