Simulating the Milky Way's Stellar Halo

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。威尔曼博士和她的合作者将研究银河系恒星晕形成和演化的数值模拟。 他们将解决两个主要问题：恒星晕的起源是什么（它是由合并到银河系的矮星系的残骸组成的吗？）银河系作为一个星系有多典型 该团队已经对八个类似于我们银河系的星系的形成进行了高分辨率的模拟。它们结合了包括气体动力学在内的物理过程，可以分辨出圆周速度仅为10- 20公里/秒的暗晕。 该模型将对晕星的运动和化学成分进行预测，将在晕中形成的恒星的性质与随后与中央星系合并的较小卫星星系中形成的恒星的性质进行比较。 这些模拟的结果将与大型斯隆数字巡天对银河系恒星晕的观测结果进行比较，因此，该奖项将支持一名女研究生的论文项目。 Willman博士将根据这项研究为她的高级本科课程开发一个计算实验室，并在她的网站上传播。 该项目的预测将有助于解释未来对银河系和附近星系晕中恒星的大型调查数据。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Dr. Willman and her collaborators will study numerical simulations that follow the formation and evolution of the Milky Way's stellar halo. They will address two major questions: what is the origin of the stellar halo (is it composed of the remains of dwarf galaxies that merged into the Milky Way?) and, how typical is the Milky Way as a galaxy? The team has already performed high-resolution simulations of the formation of eight galaxies resembling our Milky Way. These incorporate physical processes including the gas dynamics, and can resolve dark halos with circular speeds of only 10-20km/s. The model will make predictions for the motions and chemical composition of the halo stars, comparing the properties of stars that were formed in the halo with those formed in smaller satellite galaxies that subsequently merged with the central galaxy. The results from these simulations will be compared to observations of the Milky Way's stellar halo from the large Sloan Digital Sky Survey.Thus award will support the thesis project of a female graduate student. Dr Willman will develop a computational lab based on this research for her advanced undergraduate classes, and for dissemination on her website. Predictions from this project will facilitate the interpretation of data from future large surveys of stars in the halo of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.