Astrophysics and Computational Astronomy

We use and develop theoretical models and state of the art simulations related to different fields in astrophysics and observational astronomy.
Current projects are as follows:

Simulations related to the SKA

Focusing on the physics and energetics of the ISM and IGM, we aim to address the most fundamental questions in understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies such as what are physical parameters/agents governing the structure formation on various scales?, how does the ISM/IGM energy balance change with the cosmic time?, and what are the role of the thermal and non-thermal processes in the formation and evolution of galaxies? To address these, it is vital to obtain a more complete knowledge of the ISM/IGM components than what is currently known. High sensitivity and resolution observations are needed to enable us to dissect the thermal and non-thermal processes and produce maps of the thermal gas vs the relativistic and magnetized ISM/IGM not only in the local Universe but also at high-z. We simulate such obseravtions to address the required capabilities of the next generation radio telescopes such as the SKA.

People involved:

Formation and evolution of stars

Stars are formed in the densest regions of cold molecular clouds. Resent observations of nearby interstellar medium with Herschel space observatory show that these clouds have preferentially filamentary structures. Understanding the evolution and formation of stars as the building blocks of galaxies, is still remained a grand challenge in astrophysics, despite many decades of study. A theory for formation of stars is central for modeling galaxy evolution and also planet formation, including our solar system. It is generally believed that the complex interplay of gravity, supersonic turbulence, magnetic field, radiation and the gas thermodynamics should be at work when a star is formed. To shed light on this problem, we simulate formation and evolution of stars and star clusters, under effect of various physical agents, using the GPU and HPC facilities.

Related Projects

Evolution of galaxies and galaxy systems

In larger scales, we are interested in simulation of galaxies to figure out how the magnetic field, turbulence and stellar feedback, affect the galaxy evolution. We also use cosmological simulations such as IllustrisTNG, that is an ongoing series of large, cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation to study the evolution of galaxy systems and investigate the role of aforementioned phenomena in the evolution of galaxies.

Related Projects