CAREER: Origins of Structure in Planetary Systems

PI和她在加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的学生将开展一个全面的理论研究项目，这将使她能够预测哪些物理条件会产生与我们自己的行星系统相媲美的行星系统。最终，这将有助于识别可能存在生命的离群行星。结合她的研究项目，她将识别对物理学感兴趣的西班牙裔学生进入UCSB，并努力提高他们在物理专业的保留率。为此，她将开发一门专门为少数族裔学生设计的大一课程，帮助他们在继续本科学习的过程中建立一个队列和指导网络，并为他们提供研究机会。该项目的具体目标是：(1)通过计算湍流盘中卵石吸积的效率，测试盘湍流是否为巨行星的核心吸积形成设定了宽分离极限；(2)测试巨行星是通过核心吸积还是重力破碎形成的；(3)对扰动碎片盘进行动力学分析，研究宽分离行星群中的分散侵入者。(4)利用经典和共振柯伊伯带天体的联合动力学来约束外太阳系的动力学历史；(5)将这些研究结果综合成行星系统架构集合，可用于测试哪些物理参数决定了特定系统的结构。

The PI and her students at the University of California Santa Barbara will carry out a comprehensive program of theoretical studies that will allow her to predict which physical conditions generate planetary systems comparable to our own. Ultimately, this will facilitate identification of outlier planets that could host life. Integrated with her research program, she will identify Hispanic students interested in physics as they enter UCSB and lead an effort to increase their retention in the physics major. To do this, she will develop a freshman course specifically designed for underrepresented minority students, help them develop a cohort and establish a mentoring network as they continue with their undergraduate studies, and provide them research opportunities.The specific goals of this project are to (1) test whether disk turbulence sets the wide separation limit for core-accretion formation of giant planets by calculating the efficiency of pebble accretion in turbulent disks, (2) test whether giant planets formed via core accretion or gravitational fragmentation, (3) perform dynamical analyses of disturbed debris disks to study scattered interlopers in the wide-separation planet population, (4) use the combined dynamics of classical and resonant Kuiper belt objects to constrain the outer solar system's dynamical history, and (5) synthesize the results of these studies into collections of planetary system architectures that can be used to test which physical parameters determine a particular system's structure.