UNDERSTANDING STAR FORMATION — THE STATE OF THE ART AND OUR APPROACH

Abstract:

Star formation is not only a long-standing mystery but also a growing one. The more observation technology advances, the more unknowns we discover. For example, why can only a small fraction of the galactic mass be converted to stars? Why do newly born stars share a universal mass spectrum? I will first introduce the puzzle pieces that have been collected -- molecular cloud properties including turbulence and magnetic fields. Then examples of my efforts to put them together will be presented, including numerical simulations and a future submillimeter camera being constructed at CUHK.

Bio:

I received the Ph.D. degree in astrophysics from Northwestern University in 2006. Afterwards, I had worked in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. I have been leading the Star Formation Group at CUHK's Dept. of Physics since 2014. Team members contribute to the field by utilizing all major astronomical methods, from observation to numerical simulation to instrumentation. This unique ability allows my team to offer novel insights into how turbulence and magnetic fields can regulate the gravitational contraction in molecular clouds.