Tier II Chair in Astronomy

形成星系的数十亿颗恒星是如何聚集在一起形成我们所看到的美丽的螺旋结构的？在接下来的十年里，欧洲航天局盖亚使命的观测将提供对恒星运动的新观测，以帮助我们了解银河系的结构和运动。与此同时，新的星系演化模拟模型是必要的，以解释这些数据。本研究计划的第一部分概述了一个雄心勃勃的模拟程序，使用并行计算机，将提高质量分辨率的因素1000比今天使用的典型模型。这种分辨率的提高将为数值模拟提供一个全新的保真度水平，并将有助于对银河系的结构和演化有一个全新的理解。研究计划的第二部分将集中在黑洞在星系形成中的确切作用，以及与物质吸积相关的巨大能量释放如何影响星系的形成。这是一个需要理论和数值方法的问题。

How do the billions of stars that form a galaxy come together to form the beautiful spiral structures that we see? Over the next decade observations from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission will provide exquisite new observations of stellar motions to help us understand the structure and motion of the Milky Way. At the same time, new simulation models of galactic evolution are necessary to interpret these data. The first part of this research program outlines an ambitious simulation program using parallel computers that will improve mass resolution by a factor of 1000 over typical models used today. This increase in resolution will provide an entirely new level of fidelity in numerical modelling and should contribute to a radical new understanding of the structure and evolution of the Milky Way. The second part of the research program will focus on the precise role of black holes in galaxy formation, and how the enormous energy release associated with the accretion of matter impacts the formation of galaxies. This is a problem that taxes both theoretical and numerical approaches.