CAREER: The Role of Stellar Feedback in Star Formation

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

The investigator's group will write detailed computer-models of how stars are born from gas in our galaxy. All stars are born in large clouds of gas in galaxies, which condense to form stars and planets. The investigator will write new computer models for the physics that determines the mass of new stars. She will also study how neighboring young stars influence each other and their birth environment by injecting energy into their surroundings. Evidence suggests our Sun formed together with thousands of siblings, which may have shaped our Sun?s properties. However, why stars like our Sun have the masses they do remains debated. Her team will model how stars interact with their birth environment and test different theories for the origin of star masses. The investigator will produce synthetic observations of the models and compare these to telescope observations of star-forming regions in our Milky Way galaxy. The educational goal of the project is to increase participation and diversity in STEM. The investigator will use the World Wide Telescope (WWT) educational software to communicate recent exciting astronomy discoveries to the public. She will use WWT to create interactive labs for several local underserved populations, will also organize research training and organize an annual star formation symposia. The proposal aims to explore two fundamental questions in star formation: How do stars obtain their masses? What sets the star formation rate in molecular clouds? The PI will address these questions by performing multi-physics numerical simulations of forming star clusters including outflow, wind and radiation feedback. The three key science objectives are to 1) constrain the importance of core masses in setting the stellar initial mass function, 2) evaluate the influence of feedback on turbulence and star formation efficiency, and 3) bridge simulations and observations using "apples-to-apples" comparisons. The investigator will produce synthetic observations of the models and compare directly to observations, harnessing thousands of hours of current and planned large- scale surveys probing dense gas, proto-stellar outflows with very fine resolution.