Research Intern | Universitäts-Sternwarte München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität | March 2025 - Present

Mentor: Dr Til Birnstiel, Professor

The N-body simulations were made using the Python package REBOUND

  • Developed and executed N-body simulations to investigate the gravitational collapse of a dust cloud in the presence of a central star and a pre-existing (collapsed) gas disk, focusing on the interaction between stellar gravity and disk-induced forces on gas drag.

  • Modeled coupled dust–gas dynamics during protostar formation by integrating particle trajectories with hydrodynamic fields, using snapshots from Tarā simulations to temporally and spatially interpolate local gas density, velocity, and temperature. This approach allowed for a faster computation of particle trajectories compared to hydrodynamics simulation performed in 2024, A&A, 687, A158

  • Communicated complex research insights for a broader audience through Astrobites articles, summarizing the group’s findings in an accessible and engaging manner while maintaining scientific accuracy.

Results:

The plot shows dust particles initialized with different orbital conditions gradually losing vertical momentum due to gas drag and becoming embedded within the disk.

Material:

Avaliable: Astrobites
The code is avaliable at: Link