Related papers: Light Scattering and Thermal Emission by Primitive…
Dust emission at sub-millimetre wavelengths allows us to trace the early phases of star formation in the Universe. In order to understand the physical processes involved in this mode of star formation, it is essential to gain knowledge…
We present the first results of a detailed modeling of chemical and photometric evolution of galaxies including the effects of a dusty interstellar medium. A chemical evolution code follows the SF rate, the gas fraction and the metallicity,…
An important aspect of quenching star formation is the removal of the cold interstellar medium (ISM; non-ionised gas and dust) from a galaxy. In addition, dust grains can be destroyed in a hot or turbulent medium. The adopted timescale of…
The path to understanding star formation processes begins with the study of the formation of molecular clouds. The outskirts of these clouds are characterized by low column densities that allow the penetration of ultraviolet radiation,…
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 crucial initial step in planet formation is the agglomeration of micron-sized dust into macroscopic aggregates. This phase is likely to happen very early during the protostellar disc formation, which is characterised by active gas…
In many models of dusty objects in space the grains are assumed to be composite or fluffy. However, the computation of the optical properties of such particles is still a very difficult problem. We analyze how the increase of grain porosity…
During protoplanetary disk formation, dust grains located in the outer disk retain their pristine icy composition, while solids in the inner stellar-heated disk undergo volatile loss. This process may have left a fossil record in Solar…
To constrain the nature of the very first stars, we investigate the collapse and fragmentation of primordial, metal-free gas clouds. We explore the physics of primordial star formation by means of three-dimensional simulations of the dark…
In the interstellar medium of the Milky Way, certain elements -- e.g., Mg, Si, Al, Ca, Ti, Fe -- reside predominantly in interstellar dust grains. These grains absorb, scatter, and emit electromagnetic radiation, heat the interstellar…
Star forming galaxies exhibit a variety of physical conditions, from quiescent normal spirals to the most powerful dusty starbursts. In order to study these complex systems, we need a suitable tool to analyze the information coming from…
Whether ice in cold cosmic environments is physically separated from the silicate dust or mixed with individual silicate moieties is not known. However, different grain models give very different compositions and temperatures of grains. The…
Although the basic physics of star formation is classical, numerical simulations have yielded essential insights into how stars form. They show that star formation is a highly nonuniform runaway process characterized by the emergence of…
The latest observation of HL Tau by ALMA revealed spectacular concentric dust rings in its circumstellar disk. We attempt to explain the multiple ring structure as a consequence of aggregate sintering. Sintering is known to reduce the…
The temperature of newly forming dust is controlled by the radiation field. As dust forms around stars, stellar transients, quasars or supernovae, the grains must grow through a regime where they are stochastically heated by individual…
Millimeter and sub-millimeter observations of continuum linear dust polarization provide insight into dust grain growth in protoplanetary disks, which are the progenitors of planetary systems. We present the results of the first survey of…
Many things in current interstellar dust studies are taken as well understood givens by much of the community. For example, it is widely held that interstellar dust is made up of only three components, i.e., astronomical silicates, graphite…
The major satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are believed to have formed in circumplanetary discs, which orbit forming giant protoplanets. Gas and dust in CPDs have different distributions and affect each other by drag, which varies with…
How and when in the star formation sequence do dust grains start to grow into pebbles is a cornerstone question to both star and planet formation. We compute the polarized radiative transfer from a model solar-type protostellar core, using…
Dust plays a key role during star, disk and planet formation. Yet, its dynamics during the protostellar collapse remains a poorly investigated field. Recent studies seem to indicate that dust may decouple efficiently from the gas during…