Project Motivation:We have obsetained an Austrlian Research Council grant to determine the impact of star-planet collistions. Can planets survive an engulphment by the evolving, expanding giant? Can such encounter alter the path of stellar evolution? Mounting evidence shows that this is so, but the underlying physical reasons remain uncertain. |
The technique:I anvisage that we will initially use a 3D hydrodynamic code which we have adpted (Passy et al. 2011). It is a code that simulates common envelope interactions between two stars and that can be extended to the planet-star problem. |
The group:my immediate group consists of 5 PhD students and myself, working on different aspects of binary interactions, tides, imagining of small disks around stars, detection of binaries in evolved stars population synthesis and the common envelope interactions, stellar mergers... One of the PhD students will work on hydrosynamic simulations as well. The Macquarie University Astronomy, Astrophysics and Astrophotonics reserch centre consists of 6 fculty and approximately 40 post-docs and students. The areas of interst are galactic archeology, planetary nebulae and surveys, planetary disl formation theory, star formation, evolved binaries, plant detection and instrumentation. The Physics and Astronomy Department also has a sizeable laser, quantum physics and bio-physics group. |
The research collaboration:I am collaborating with a wide group on this project. This includes Falk Herwig (stellar structure theory) at the University of Victoria, Canada, Chris Fryer (SPH simulations) at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the USA, the stellar merger theory group at the Louisiana State University (Juhan Frank, Joel Tohline), Peter Wood (my co-investigator on this grant) working on binary observation group at the Australian National University. This is just the immediate collaborations I have on this, but as you can see from my ADS paper listing my collaborators are numerous and the research fields are all interrelated. |
Sydney:well, this is a vey nice place to live for a few years. The post-doc position will clearly give you (and your partmenr) a work visa. Sydney is expensive, but the salary is amply appropriate for it. The University is located on the north shore and has a train stop on campus as well as a shopping centre with all the amenities. We are located at -32 degrees south and we enjoy a mild and sunny winter and a reasonable, albeit wetter summer. The salary also includes 17% sperannuation which you can take with you after you leave. Health insurance is free for those members of a group of countries which includes the UK but not the US (this is not country of citizenship but last country of residence). However, even if not free, the costs for an individual healch insurance package are modest (about $150/month). |
To apply:visit this page. |
Last Update: 8 February 2012