Project Description: The pre-supernova evolution of massive stars has been studied extensively over the past century. Yet, there are many uncertainties still associated with their evolution including convection, mass loss rates, and nuclear reaction rates. These uncertainties often overlap and can inhibit our predictive capability with stellar models for tools in matching with observations of massive stars, stellar explosions, compact mergers and many other scenarios. In this project, the intern will work on building a set of new models of massive stars which include a range of updated physics, calibrations for mixing, reaction rates, and many more. These updated models will be performed over a range of masses and metallicity to serve as tools for observational studies in various environments. This project will leverage the open-source stellar evolution toolkit, Modules for Experiments for Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) and local UA high-performance computing resources.
NASA Relevance: This project aligns to many aspects of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, including Cosmic Origins and Astrophysics Explorers.
Work Description: Tasks may include deploying MESA on HPC systems, running and managing large grids of stellar models, analysis of these models to to describe their physical properties and behavior, engage in manuscript preparation describing these results, presenting the results to others.
Open or Reserved Project: 1 position reserved, but will consider new student if requested student not awarded.