Star formation and magnetic fields in the interstellar medium

恒星形成和星际介质中的磁场

• 批准号: 2734396
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2734396
• 关键词: Star; formation; magnetic; fields; interstellar

The process of star formation is one of the most important unsolved problems in modern astrophysics. Understanding the origin of the mass distribution of new stars (the Initial Mass Function), and the cause of the very low efficiency with which these stars form, is crucial to questions as diverse as how galaxies evolve, and how solar systems such as our own are born. One of the key unknowns in the star formation process is the role and dynamic importance of interstellar magnetic fields in mediating the gravitational collapse of star-forming regions. We are at the beginning of a revolution in our ability to deduce the properties of these interstellar magnetic fields, driven by instrumentation such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and the Planck satellite, which are capable of measuring polarised dust emission on size scales ranging from the spiral arms of the Milky Way through to the discs around young stars. This project will use far-infrared and submillimetre polarimetric instrumentation, primarily the JCMT and ALMA, to observe dust polarisation, and so magnetic field properties, in a variety of star-forming regions within the Milky Way. These observations will be used to investigate the existence or otherwise of distinct weak- and strong-field modes of star formation, and so the role of magnetic fields in determining star formation efficiency and the mass distribution of new stars.

恒星形成的过程是现代天体物理学中最重要的未解决问题之一。了解新恒星的质量分布的起源（最初的质量功能），以及这些恒星形成的非常低效率的原因，对于类似星系的发展以及像我们自己的太阳系诞生的问题至关重要。星形形成过程中的关键未知数之一是星际磁场在介导恒星形成区域的重力塌陷中的作用和动态重要性。我们正处于一场革命的开始，我们可以推断出这些星际磁场的特性，这是由诸如Atacama大毫米阵列（ALMA），James Clerk Maxwell望远镜（JCMT）和Planck卫星等仪器驱动的。该项目将使用远红外和亚毫米的极化仪器（主要是JCMT和ALMA）来观察灰尘极化，并在银河系中的各种恒星形成区域中观察到磁场性能。这些观察结果将用于研究恒星形成的不同弱和强场模式的存在，因此磁场在确定恒星形成效率和新恒星的质量分布中的作用。