Related papers: Dust formation in massive stars and their explosiv…
Observations of the WC9+OB system WR 65 in the infrared show variations of its dust emission consistent with a period near 4.8~yr, suggesting formation in a colliding-wind binary (CWB) having an elliptical orbit. If we adopt the IR maximum…
Wolf-Rayet stars represent one of the final stages of massive stellar evolution. Relatively little is known about this short-lived phase and we currently lack reliable mass, distance, and binarity determinations for a representative sample.…
The dust reservoir in the interstellar medium of a galaxy is constantly being replenished by dust formed in the stellar winds of evolved stars. Due to their vicinity, nearby irregular dwarf galaxies the Magellanic Clouds provide an…
To investigate the nature of starbursts' dust, we constructed a model of the stars and dust in starburst galaxies and applied it to 30 observed starburst spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The starburst model was constructed by combining…
This paper reviews the chemistry of star-forming regions, with an emphasis on the formation of high-mass stars. We first outline the basic molecular processes in dense clouds, their implementation in chemical models, and techniques to…
My thesis work aims to study the inter-relation between various physical and chemical conditions in a wide range of astrophysical environments. Our studied regions range from the super-hot regions (i.e., nebular, photon-dominated, or…
The wavelength dependences of interstellar extinction and polarization, supplemented by observed elemental abundances and the spectrum of infrared emission from dust heated by starlight, strongly constrain dust models. One dust model that…
We compare observations of AGB stars and predictions of the Elitzur & Ivezic (2001) steady-state radiatively driven dusty wind model. The model results are described by a set of similarity functions of a single independent variable, and…
Recent observations have revealed that protoplanetary discs often exhibit cavities and azimuthal asymmetries such as dust traps and clumps. The presence of a stellar binary system in the inner disc regions has been proposed to explain the…
Main sequence stars hosting extreme quantities of inner planetary system debris are likely experiencing transient dust production events. The nature of these events, if they can be unambiguously attributed to a single process, can…
Many stars are in binaries or higher-order multiple stellar systems. Although in recent years a large number of binaries have been proven to host exoplanets, how planet formation proceeds in multiple stellar systems has not been studied…
I review multiwavelength observations of material seen around different types of evolved massive stars (i.e. red supergiants, yellow hypergiants, luminous blue variables, B[e] supergiants, and Wolf-Rayet stars), concentrating on diagnostics…
The abundance evolution of interstellar dust species originating from stellar sources and from condensation in molecular clouds in the local interstellar medium of the Milky Way is studied and the input of dust material to the Solar System…
The physical mechanism that allows massive stars to form is a major unsolved problem in astrophysics. Stars with masses $\gtsim 20$ $\msun$ reach the main sequence while still embedded in their natal clouds, and the immense radiation output…
Dust plays crucial roles in galaxy formation and evolution. In the early epoch of galaxy evolution dust is only supplied by supernovae (SNe). With the aid of a new physical model of dust production by SNe, we constructed a model of dust…
Stars form with gaseous and dusty circumstellar envelopes, which rapidly settle into disks that eventually give rise to planetary systems. Understanding the process by which these disks evolve is paramount in developing an accurate theory…
Cloud environment is thought to play a critical role in determining the mechanism of formation of massive stars. In this contribution we review the physical characteristics of the environment around recently formed massive stars. Particular…
Although dust emission at cosmological distances has only been detected a little more than a decade ago, remarkable progress has been achieved since then in characterizing the far-infrared emission of high-redshift systems. The mere fact…
Star formation is observed to be strongly correlated to dense regions of molecular gas. Although the exact nature of the link between star formation and molecular hydrogen is still unclear, some have suggested that shielding of dense gas by…
Recent observations indicate potentially carbon-rich exoplanet atmospheres. Spectral fitting methods for brown dwarfs and exoplanets have invoked the C/O ratio as additional parameter but carbon-rich cloud formation modeling is a challenge…