Understanding How Stars Form in the Building Blocks of Galaxies - Gas Dynamics in Dwarf Galaxies and Star Clusters

Jill Palmer Naiman女士被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在哈佛大学天体物理中心开展一项研究和教育计划。她的研究将主要集中在小星系和星团中恒星是如何形成的。由于恒星是宇宙中发光物质的基本单位，对我们所观察到的大部分东西负有直接或间接的责任，因此在天体物理学中了解恒星是如何形成的是至关重要的。此外，星系的形成是分层次的--像矮小星系这样的小东西合并成更大的东西，最终形成像我们的星系这样的物体。奈曼的研究将使用气体的三维模拟来模拟恒星将如何在小型天体物理系统中形成，以确定这些天体是如何变成我们今天观察到的东西的，以及它们的恒星形成历史如何影响在我们更大的银河系中形成的恒星的数量。除了她的研究努力外，奈曼女士还将发展她目前参加的几项外联活动。她将继续通过监狱教育项目向囚犯教授STEM课程，将科学家和艺术家小组聚集在一起，将复杂的天体物理模拟可视化，为公众提供教育和娱乐，并将继续教授和指导学生。奈曼将进行一项理论研究，主要包括数值模拟，旨在了解触发恒星形成所需的质量供应条件，重点是在星系和星团中发生的大尺度过程。奈曼女士将用三维视角和对微观物理的完整描述，包括流体动力学、恒星和辐射反馈以及外部引力扰动，来测试我们对球状星团中恒星形成的理解。这一知识还将应用于与星系矮小星系中的气体保留和恒星形成有关的问题。还将研究核星团中气体滞留对中心大质量黑洞进食率的影响。除了她的研究努力之外，作者还将通过在波士顿地区和哈佛校园提供的机会和项目继续开展几项外展活动。将在现有已证明有效的活动的基础上，开展三项教育和公众宣传活动。首先，一项教育计划将旨在利用最先进的天体物理模拟作为共同点，将计算科学家和学生在视觉艺术和数字媒体方面的培训融合在一起。作为监狱教育项目的一名讲师，奈曼还将通过以探究为基础的方法，向波士顿囚犯讲授将天文概念融入数学教育的课程。最后，奈曼将继续担任研究导师的角色，指导未被充分代表的本科生。

Ms. Jill Palmer Naiman is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University. Her research will focus predominately on how stars form in small galaxies and star clusters. As stars are the fundamental units of luminous matter in the universe, being responsible, directly or indirectly, for most of what we observe, it is of central importance in astrophysics to understand how stars form. Furthermore, galaxy formation is hierarchical - small things like dwarf galaxies merge to become bigger things, and eventually, objects like our galaxy. Ms. Naiman's research will use three dimensional simulations of gas to model how stars will form in small astrophysical systems in order to determine both how these objects became what we observe today, and how their star formation histories could have affected the amount of stars which formed in our larger Milky Way galaxy. In addition to her research efforts Ms. Naiman will grow several outreach activities in which she currently participates. She will continue teaching STEM classes to inmates through the Prison Education Project, bring together groups of scientists and artists to visualize complex astrophysical simulations for the education and enjoyment of the public, and will continue teaching and mentoring students.Ms. Naiman will carry out a theoretical investigation, chiefly involving numerical simulations, aimed at understanding the mass supply conditions required for triggering star formation, with an emphasis on processes occurring at large scales in both galaxies and star clusters. Using a three-dimensional view and a complete description of the microphysics including hydrodynamics, stellar and radiative feedback and external gravitational perturbations Ms. Naiman will test our understanding of star formation in globular clusters. This knowledge will also be applied to issues related to gas retention and star formation in galactic dwarf galaxies. The effects of gas retention in nuclear star clusters on the feeding rates of central, massive black holes will also be studied. In addition to her research efforts the author will continue several outreach activities through the opportunities and programs available in the Boston area and the Harvard campus. Three education and public outreach activities will be carried out, which build on existing proven activities. First, an educational program will aim to intermingle the training of computational scientists and students in the visual arts and digital media using state-of-art astrophysical simulations as common ground. As an instructor in the Prison Education Project, Ms. Naiman will also teach courses incorporating astronomy concepts into math education through inquiry based methods to Boston inmates. Finally, Ms. Naiman will continue her role as a research mentor to underrepresented undergraduates.