2025 Project Description

Weighting Protostars: Toward Testing Protostellar Evolution

Supervisors

Christian Flores, Nagayoshi Ohashi.
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

Protostars represent an early stage of stellar evolution, when a forming star is still embedded in a dense envelope. Mass, in particular, is a key property that dictates how a star evolves and sets the stage for potential planet formation. Yet, determining protostellar masses remains challenging due to the surrounding obscuring material and uncertainties in applying pre-main-sequence evolutionary models at such a young phase.

In this project, we aim to test the validity of several stellar evolutionary models by comparing two sets of observations: the protostar’s photosphere—derived from near-infrared spectroscopic data—and its mass, inferred from the star’s gravitational influence on a planet-forming disk observed with ALMA. We expect the student to use radiative transfer and kinematic models to interpret these data, apply statistical methods to retrieve stellar parameters, and determine which evolutionary models best match both sets of observations.

Through this project, the student will gain a deeper understanding of early stellar evolution and the complexities of mass determination in embedded protostars. They will develop hands-on skills in near-infrared spectroscopy and sub-millimeter data manipulation, radiative transfer and kinematic modeling, statistical analysis, and comparative studies of evolutionary tracks. These techniques will not only refine our knowledge of protostar evolution but also lay the groundwork for interpreting planet formation processes in similar young systems.

Required Background

1. Strong programming skills in Python are required, including experience with scientific computing libraries such as NumPy, SciPy, and Matplotlib.
2. Familiarity with data analysis and simulations is preferred.
3. Basic or advanced knowledge of astrophysics is helpful but not mandatory.