Faculty Award for Women - Energetic Winds and Disk Accretionin Low Mass Young Stars

这个女科学家和工程师教师奖是由 五所大学天文系的苏珊·爱德华兹博士， 史密斯学院。 美国国家科学基金会女科学家和工程师学院奖 认可得奖者在教学方面的卓越表现 和奖学金，以及继续重大的潜力， 对科学研究、学术专业的贡献，以及 未来科学家的教育。 爱德华兹博士将对高能风进行研究， 低质量年轻恒星的吸积盘。 目前的观测和 关于星星形成的理论研究表明， 分子云中致密的旋转核心的坍缩， 原恒星的初始配置，由 大约太阳系大小的扁平旋转圆盘。 期间 在最初的十万年里， 质量落入盘的外部， 物质穿过圆盘到达中心恒星物体 隐藏从直接视图由灰尘提供的不透明屏幕， 下落的剩余核心物质 在这个过程的早期， 然而，观测表明， 一种充满活力的两极风。 虽然这种驱动机制 风还没有被理解，理论论证表明，这样的 需要风来使中心物体脱落 有足够的角动量成长到恒星的尺寸。 几十万年过去了， 移除了足够多的坠落的核心物质 星星/高能风/吸积盘系统在光学上变得 它是一颗金牛座T型“星星”。 高分辨率光学 金牛座T系统的光谱测量将在 基特峰国家天文台的4米望远镜， 研究在两个不同区域形成的原子线。 来自观测的数据的光谱线形成的高能 风将被用来探测风的起源和准直 机制，并更好地约束风质量损失率。 观测到在物质吸积到 恒星表面的变化将被用来确定 从圆盘到星星的质量传递是通过一个经典的 赤道边界层或者恒星磁场 中断磁盘和通道磁盘材料沿着场线 到恒星表面

This faculty award for Women Scientists and Engineers is made to Dr. Suzan Edwards of the Five College Astronomy Department at Smith College. The NSF Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers recognizes the high quality of the awardee's record in teaching and scholarship as well as the potential for continued significant contributions to scientific research, the academic profession, and the education of future scientists. Dr. Edwards will carry out research on energetic winds and disk accretion in low mass young stars. Current observational and theoretical work on star formation suggests that the gravitational collapse of dense, rotating cores in molecular clouds results in an initial configuration of a protostar which is dominated by a flattened spinning disk of roughly solar system dimension. During the first hundred thousand years, the simultaneous processes of mass infall onto the outer part of the disk and accretion of material through the disk and onto the central stellar object are hidden from direct view by the opaque screen provided by dust in the infalling remnant core material. Very early in this process, however, observations show that the protostellar system turns on an energetic bipolar wind. While the driving mechanism for this wind is not yet understood, theoretical arguments suggest that such a wind is required in order for the central object to shed sufficient angular momentum to grow to stellar dimensions. After several hundred thousand years, the energetic wind has removed enough of the remnant infalling core material that the star/energetic wind/accretion disk system becomes optically revealed as a T Tauri "star". A high resolution optical spectroscopic survey of T Tauri systems will be carried out at the 4m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in a double-pronged study to investigate atomic lines formed in two distinct regions. Data from Observations of spectral lines formed in the energetic winds will be used to probe the wind origin and collimation mechanism, and to better constrain wind mass loss rates. Observations of lines formed in regions where mass accretion onto the stellar surface is occurring will be used to determine whether mass transfer from disk to star is conducted through a classical equatorial boundary layer or whether the stellar magnetic field interrupts the disk and channels disk material along field lines to the stellar surface.