Rings, Gaps and Spirals: Signatures of planet formation in protoplanetary discs? (Ref: 4388)

行星的形成涉及原行星盘中冰、尘埃和气体之间的动态相互作用。原行星盘研究的最终目标是产生一个预测性的理论，可以解释观测到的系外行星的人口统计，但不同的过程，如尘埃捕获，核心吸积，引力不稳定性和行星迁移的相对重要性仍然不清楚。幸运的是，现代高角分辨率技术已经开辟了强大的新方法来研究行星形成时期的原行星盘。在这个博士项目中，您将分析和建模使用Gemini Planet Imager获得的数据，Gemini Planet Imager是一种极端自适应光学（AO）仪器，使用8米直径的Gemini South望远镜校正地球湍流大气以产生衍射限制图像。这些数据是作为GPI大型和长期计划的一部分获得的，该计划题为YSO的散射光成像：探测行星形成的基本阶段。观测结果显示，圆盘中的大尺度结构可能是尘埃捕获，雪线或外部或内部恒星或行星质量物体的影响的结果（例如，参见Monnier，Harries et al. 2017，2019; Laws，Harries et al. 2020）。第一阶段将是对散射光图像中观察到的结构进行详细的定量分析。第二是将这些数据与光盘的其他探测器（包括光谱能量分布）和其他波长的高分辨率成像（包括阿尔马和SMA亚毫米数据和光学/近红外干涉测量）结合联合收割机。最终目标是使用最先进的辐射传输代码TORUS对数据集进行建模，该代码是在埃克塞特开发的（在Harries et al. 2019中进行了审查）。该代码能够模拟尘埃连续谱和谱线（例如，见图2），从而能够从泛光谱数据中提取最大信息。

Planet formation involves the dynamic interplay between ice, dust, and gas in protoplanetary discs. The eventual goal of protoplanetary disc research is to produce a predictive theory that can explain the observed demographics of exoplanets, but the relative importance of different processes such as dust trapping, core accretion, gravitational instability, and planetary migration is still unclear.Fortunately, modern high-angular resolution techniques have opened up powerful new ways to investigate protoplanetary discs during the epoch of planet formation. During this PhD project you would analyse and model data obtained with the Gemini Planet Imager, an extreme adaptive optics (AO) instrument that corrects for Earth's turbulent atmosphere to produce diffraction-limited images using the 8-m diameter Gemini South Telescope.These data were obtained as part of our GPI Large and Long Programme entitled Scattered Light imaging of YSOs: Probing the Fundamental Stages of Planet Formation. The observations show large-scale structures in the discs that may the result of dust trapping, snow lines, or the influence of external or internal stellar or planetary mass objects (see for example Monnier, Harries et al. 2017, 2019; Laws, Harries et al. 2020).The first stage will be a detailed quantitative analysis of the structures observed in the scattered light images. The second is to combine these data with other probes of the disc, including the spectral energy distribution, and high-resolution imaging at other wavelengths, including ALMA and SMA sub-mm data and optical/near-IR interferometry. The ultimate goal is to model the dataset using a state-of-the-art radiative-transfer code, TORUS, which has been developed here at Exeter (reviewed in Harries et al. 2019). The code is capable of modelling both the dust continuum and spectral lines (see Figure 2 for example), which enables the extraction of the maximum information from the pan-spectral data.