DATE:

Friday, March 10, 2023

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 314

SPEAKER:

Dr. Anna Rosen, Center for Astronomy & Space Sciences, University of CA, San Diego

ABSTRACT:

Massive stars (those with masses above ~8 Msun) play an essential role in the Universe. They are rare, yet the energy and momentum they inject into the interstellar medium (i.e., stellar feedback) with their intense radiation fields, collimated protostellar outflows, and fast, isotropic stellar winds dominate the energetics of star-forming regions and galaxies, which has important implications for both star and galaxy formation. Massive stars form from the gravitational collapse of magnetized, dense, and turbulent molecular gas clumps located within giant molecular clouds (GMCs; Mcl >103 Msun). During their formation, stellar feedback may limit their growth by accretion and disrupt their natal environments .To understand these processes, radiation-magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulations are required. In this talk, I will present results from a series of RMHD simulations that model the gravitational collapse of massive pre-stellar clumps into massive stellar systems. I will demonstrate that stellar feedback quenches accretion onto ~30 Msun stars that form in isolated clumps and therefore stars more massive than this must form in regions within giant molecular clouds that are supplied mass via large-scale, high ram-pressure dynamical inflows, in agreement with observations of massive star-forming regions.

In addition to discussing my scientific results, I will describe how recent advances in parallel and high-performance computing can be leveraged to optimize RMHD simulations for performance and scalability. Moving forward, I will discuss my plans to prepare future RMHD simulations for the next generation of supercomputers and leveraging exascale computing to advance the field of computational astrophysics and deepen our understanding of star and galaxy formation.

HOST:

Calvin Johnson

VIDEO: