The formation and evolution of discs around young stars

观测设施的进步，特别是阿塔卡马大型毫米阵列（阿尔马）和甚大望远镜/球面仪器的出现，最近提供了分辨率和灵敏度前所未有的年轻恒星周围圆盘的图像。这些观测提供了大量的测量质量和大小的盘样本，并显示了各种各样的结构（例如尘埃环，螺旋和尘埃弧）。这个博士项目的目的是使用盘形成和演化的流体动力学模型来扩展我们对原行星盘多样性起源的理解，以及驱动其演化的物理过程。该项目将开始检查在一系列星星团形成的辐射流体动力学模拟中产生的盘的性质，以确定盘的性质如何取决于初始条件和环境，例如在恒星密度较低或较高的区域，或在不同的金属丰度，或在高红移。在这一初步项目之后，注意力将转移到围绕单个和多个原恒星系统的圆盘的详细研究，包括更好地了解原行星圆盘中尘埃的动力学和生长（即行星形成的最早阶段），以及双星系统和多星星系统中圆盘的动力学（例如，从环双星盘到嵌入的恒星上的时变吸积，以及与双星或多星系统的轨道不对准的盘的演化）。该项目将涉及进行和分析星星形成和原行星盘的最新辐射流体动力学模拟，并将流体动力学模型与分析理论和观测结果进行比较。

Advances in observational facilities, particularly the advent of the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) and the VLT/SPHERE instrument, have recently provided images of discs around young stars at unprecedented resolutions and sensitivities. These observations are providing large samples of discs with measured masses and sizes, and that display a wide variety of structures (e.g. dust rings, spirals, and dust arcs).The aim of this PhD project is to use hydrodynamical models of disc formation and evolution to extend our understanding of the origin of the diversity of protoplanetary discs and the physical processes that drive their evolution. The project will begin by examining the properties of discs produced in a series of radiation hydrodynamical simulations of star cluster formation, to determine how disc properties may depend on initial conditions and environment, such as in regions of lower or higher stellar density, or at different metallicities, or at high redshift. Following this initial project, attention will shift to detailed studies of discs around single and multiple protostellar systems, including better understanding the dynamics and growth of dust in protoplanetary discs (i.e. the earliest stages of planet formation), and the dynamics of discs in binary and multiple star systems (e.g. time-variable accretion from a circumbinary disc onto the embedded stars, and the evolution of discs that are misaligned with the orbit of a binary or multiple system). The project will involve performing and analysing state-of-the-art radiation hydrodynamical simulations of star formation and protoplanetary discs, and comparison of hydrodynamical models with analytical theory and observations.