Related papers: Spectropolarimetry and the study of circumstellar …
Linear spectropolarimetry is a powerful tool to probe circumstellar structures on spatial scales that cannot yet be achieved through direct imaging. In this review I discuss the role that emission-line polarimetry can play in constraining…
Disks are ubiquitous in stellar astronomy, and play a crucial role in the formation and evolution of stars. In this contribution we present an overview of the most recent results, with emphasis on high spatial and spectral resolution. We…
The imaging of disks around young stars presents extreme challenges in high dynamic range, angular resolution, and sensitivity. Recent instrumental advances have met these challenges admirably, leading to a marked increase in imaging…
Spectropolarimetric techniques are a mainstay of astrophysical inquiry, ranging from Solar System objects to the Cosmic Background Radiation. This review highlights applications of stellar polarimetry for massive hot stars, particularly in…
Circumstellar disks are an integral part of the star formation process and the sites where planets are formed. Understanding the physical processes that drive their evolution, as disks evolve from optically thick to optically thin, is…
A detailed understanding of the physics of star and planet formation requires study of individual objects as well as statistical assessment of global properties and evolutionary trends. Observational investigations of circumstellar material…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
Observations of circumstellar disks around stars as a function of stellar properties such as mass, metallicity, multiplicity, and age, provide constraints on theories concerning the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Utilizing…
In this article, we show how asteroseismology and spectropolarimetry allow to probe dynamical processes in massive star interiors. First, we give a summary of the state-of-the-art. Second, we recall the MHD mechanisms that take place in…
We now understand how low mass stars evolve through cloud collapse and disc accretion, but whether higher mass stars are also disc accretors is as yet unknown. Spectropolarimetry observations can help in answering this basic question, as…
There are growing amount of very high-resolution polarized scattered light images of circumstellar disks. Nascent giant planets planets are surrounded by their own circumplanetary disks which may scatter and polarize both the planetary and…
Recent advances in our understanding of massive star formation have made clear the important role of protostellar disks in mediating accretion. Here we describe a simple, semi-analytic model for young, deeply embedded, massive accretion…
We review recent progress in high-resolution imaging of scattered light from disks around young stellar objects. Many new disks have been discovered or imaged in scattered light, and improved instrumentation and observing techniques have…
Newly formed stars are often observed to possess circumstellar disks, from which mass continues to be accreted onto the star and fed into outflowing jets, and which eventually may evolve into dusty debris disks and planetary systems. Recent…
Spiral galaxies offer a unique opportunity to study the role of star formation in galaxy evolution and to test various theoretical star formation schemes. I review some recent relevant work on the evolution of spiral galaxies. Detailed…
We review recent advances in our understanding of the innermost regions of the circumstellar environment around young stars, made possible by the technique of long baseline interferometry at infrared wavelengths. Near-infrared observations…
We investigate the possibility to detect giant planets that are still embedded in young circumstellar disks. Based on models with different stellar, planetary, and disk masses, and different radial positions of the planet we analyze the…
Circumstellar disks are an essential ingredient of the formation of low-mass stars. It is unclear, however, whether the accretion-disk paradigm can also account for the formation of stars more massive than about 10 solar masses, in which…
In this paper, I review how optical spectro-interferometry has become a particularly well suited technique to study the close environment of young stars, by spatially resolving both their IR continuum and line emission regions. I summarize…
(abridged) Thus far our impressions regarding the evolutionary time scales for young circumstellar disks have been based on small number statistics. Over the past decade, however, in addition to precision study of individual star/disk…