2024 Project Description

Do gas gaps stop accretion in protoplanetary disks?
This project can be carried out remotely.

Supervisors

Ruobing Dong
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

Protoplanetary disks are the birthplaces of planets. What drives accretion in protoplanetary disks is debated. Some protoplanetary disks host deep gas cavities or gaps. In theory, such structures may hamper disk accretion because a high radial velocity of gas is needed to sustain accretion across gaps. Depending on whether gapped disks show normal or low accretion rates on average, accretion theory may be tested. The student will be tasked to collect a sample of disks showing deep gaps in archival ALMA gas observations, constrain the gap depletion factor through radiative transfer modeling, and search for possible correlations between accretion rate and gap depths (and possibly other quantities). Ideally the student shall produce a first-author refereed paper at the end of the project.

Required Background

Adequate english communication skills (particularly reading and writing). Familiarity with linux/unix operation systems and command line. Familiarity with at least one programming language (e.g., python, IDL, matlab, etc). Past research experiences in ALMA observations, radiative transfer simulations, or protoplanetary disks, are preferred, but not required.