Chemodynamical evolution of protoplanetary disks

Supervisor: Eduard Vorobyov (Department of Astrophysics) in collaboration with Manuel Guedel (Department of Astrophysics)

Funding Situation: potentially via a VISESS PhD fellowship

Project outline: Protoplanetary disks hold the key to understanding stellar mass accumulation and planet formation. The diversity of protoplanetary disk shapes and multitude of planetary system architectures revealed by the powerful modern-day observational facilities have motivated extensive numerical studies of protoplanetary disks. This project is aimed at studying the chemodynamical evolution of protoplanetary disks using the in-house numerical hydrodynamics code FEOSAD. The student responsibility would be the development of a compact chemical reaction network (using the available large databases, like UMIST) that can realistically describe the evolution of main volatile species in the disk environment (CO, CO2, H2O, and CH4). The basic knowledge of numerical methods and FORTRAN language is an asset. Simultaneously addressing the disk dynamical and chemical evolution will allow studying the complex interplay between dynamical processes (such as gravitational instability) and chemical processes (such as desorption and adsorption of ices), which affect the growth of dust and formation of protoplanetary embryos in protoplanetary disks. The composition of primordial atmospheres of Earth-like potentially habitable protoplanets will be the final focus of this project.