Star formation and early stellar evolution in the era of Gaia

欧空局的盖亚天体测量卫星将很快发布其第三份天体测量目录，提供10亿颗恒星的距离和运动情况。GAIA-ESO探测是由欧洲南方天文台的甚大望远镜(VLT)进行的大规模光谱计划，目的是支持GAIA，并为大约10万颗恒星提供视线速度和化学丰度。杰弗里斯教授领导的一个团队正在研究如何将这些数据集组合成星团，以彻底改变我们对恒星形成、早期恒星演化和恒星年龄的时间尺度的理解。博士生将使用GAIA和GAIA-ESO数据集在星团中选择干净的恒星样本，并使用这些数据来测试和校准恒星演化模型和基准年龄估计技术，重点是使用光球层化学成分(特别是锂的丰度)提供的正交约束作为检查恒星内部物理的一种手段。该项目将使用先进的统计技术处理世界级的大型数据集，并与欧洲和美国的研究人员网络合作。

ESA's Gaia astrometry satellite will shortly release its third astrometric catalogue, providing distances and motions for a billion stars. The Gaia-ESO survey is a massive spectroscopic programme carried out at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) aiming to support Gaia and provide line-of-sight velocities and chemical abundances for some 100,000 stars. Professor Jeffries leads a group looking at ways of combining these datasets in stellar clusters to revolutionise our understanding of the timescales for star formation, early stellar evolution and stellar ages. A PhD student would use the Gaia and Gaia-ESO datasets to select clean samples of stars in stellar clusters and use these to test and calibrate stellar evolution models and benchmark age estimation techniques, with a focus on using the orthogonal constraints offered by photospheric chemical composition (particularly the abundance of lithium) as a means of examining the physics of stellar interiors. The project will involve working with large, world-class datasets using advanced statistical techniques, and collaborating with a network of European and US researchers.