PhD Projects in Planetary Formation
PhD Opportunities in Formation of Planetary Systems (and Accretion Discs and Astrophysical Fluids)
The discovery of the first extrasolar planet orbiting a sun-like star in 1995 has opened up a whole new area of astronomy: the study of extrasolar planetary systems, their origin and evolution. The research group at QMUL focusses on understanding the formation and evolution of planetary systems, and on the structure and evolution of the planetary bodies themselves. We are currently offering three possible PhD projects in this new and exciting area:
Hydrodynamic and/or magnetohydrodynamic simulations of protoplanetary discs and their interaction with forming planets.
Students will use and extend existing computer simulation codes to model protoplanetary accretion discs, and examine their interaction with forming protoplanets. Key questions are the rate at which planets migrate, their eccentricity evolution, gap formation in the disk and the accretion of gas by protoplanets, the evolution of multiple planets in a disc, planetary evolution in binary systems.
N-body modelling of planetary accumulation and formation.
Students will use and extend existing simulation codes to examine the formation of terrestrial planets and giant-planet embryos. The project will address important questions such as:
Do habitable earth like planets exist around stars with known extrasolar planets?
Can earth-like planets form and survive in binary star systems?
How do the solid cores of giant planets form within the disc lifetime?
How do migrating giant planets influence the survival and characteristics of neighbouring populations?
Hydrodynamic simulations of planetary collisions.
Students will adapt codes to model planet-scale giant impacts. This project will address questions such as:
What collision outcomes are typical to giant impacts that occur during planet growth?
How do giant impacts process growing planets?
How might the diversity of planetary characteristics be determined by collisions (e.g. planetary rotation, satellite formation)?
Hydrodynamic and/or magnetohydrodynamic simulations of planetary atmospheres.
Students will use and extend existing simulations codes to examine the dynamical, thermal, and/or chemical evolution of planetary atmospheres. Key questions include:
What is the dynamical, thermal and chemical structure of the atmospheres of highly irradiated, short-period extrasolar giant planets - the so-called `hot Jupiters'?
How do the atmospheres and climates of earth-like planets orbiting other stars vary due to stellar type and orbital configuration?