Students projects

Students projects

Currently available projects

Comparing numerical models of photon-dominated regions with newest observational data: Derive physical and chemical properties of the observed regions from the comparsion and iteratively improve the models to include all relevant excitation processes. Depending on the interests of the applicant, supplementary practical observations at the air-borne observatory SOFIA or ground-based telescopes in Chile and Spain are possible. Applicants should have a background in astrophysics, programming experience, and strong interest in data analysis and numerical simulations.
Construction of a chemical subgrid model for MHD simulations based on KOSMA-tau: The existing Python code for the simulation of 3D structures of photon-dominated regions is to be extended to allow for time-dependent boundary conditions so that it can be integrated into the 3D MHD calculations performed in project C5. Extensive tests are to be designed and performed to compare the output of a detailed chemical network implemented on the subgrid level with the existing approximations. Applicants should have some background in astrophysics, programming experience, and strong interest in numerical simulations.

Infrared pumping of molecular lines in PDRs: Study of the effect of the internal infrared pumping of various molecules through radiation of heated dust in the framework of the KOSMA-tau PDR model combined with the one-dimensional radiative transfer code SimLine.
Investigate the sensitivity of the pumping to the the strength of the external radiation field and the dust distributions for different molecules.
Impact of the UV spectral shape on the structure of photon-dominated regions: Numerical and theoretical studies how different spectral types of illuminating UV fields change photon-dominated regions (PDRs)
Compute impact of different photo-ionization and dissociation reactions
Compute the change of the spectral shape by dust extinction throughout a PDR

Der Einfluss der Ionen-Gas-Drift auf die CO-Produktion: Untersuchung wie stark die Produktion von CO in photonendominierten Regionen durch nichtthermische Stöße zwischen C⁺ und H₂ erhöht werden kann. Parametrisierung des Verlaufes der Stoßgweschwindigkeiten in Abhängigkeit vom Magnetfeld.
Der Einfluss der Staubzusammensetzung auf das Verhältnis von Ferninfrarot Linien- und Kontinuumstrahlung: Numerische Modellierung der Chemie photonon-dominierter Regionen bei Variation der Annahmen über die Staubzusammensetzung
Chemische Signaturen Röntgen-dominierter Regionen im Vergleich zu erhöhter kosmischer Strahlung: Numerische Modellierung von photonon-dominierten Regionen mit variabler kosmischer Strahlung

Christoph Bruckmann: Simulating PDR dynamics and line emission using extensions of the KOSMA-tau-3D code

Created: Dr. V. Ossenkopf
Last change: 12/06/2018