Pascale Garaud
University of California-Santa Cruz, CA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Stars are not still balls of gas. Inside, turbulent flows of plasma (hot, electrically charged gas) mix material as stars rotate.
- Fields
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics
Mathematics & Statistics
- Topics
stellar astrophysics
stellar evolution
rotating stars
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Map the parameter space governing rotational turbulence inside stars, including rotation profiles and buoyancy frequency, using direct numerical simulations of turbulent plasma flows.
- Develop multiscale asymptotic analyses that capture how convective zones drive differential rotation, an effect missing from current stellar mixing models.
- Implement new rotational mixing models in the MESA stellar evolution code and validate them against asteroseismic observations of stellar interiors.
More about the research
This mixing shapes how stars evolve from birth to death. Computer models of stellar evolution must estimate this "rotational mixing," but current recipes have known limitations. Better models matter both for understanding stars in general and for understanding our Sun, whose activity, such as solar flares, can disrupt technology on Earth.
Why it matters
More accurate rotational mixing models in the MESA code would give astronomers better tools to interpret stellar interiors and predict how stars evolve. Improved understanding of the turbulent flows inside the Sun could also help scientists better understand, and ultimately help mitigate, solar activity such as flares that can disrupt modern technology.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jennifer Van Saders
University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Model how spin is transported inside K dwarfs by fluid motions, gravity waves and magnetism, using new magnetic braking laws in the Yale Rotating Stellar Evolution Code (YREC) to explain their unexpectedly fast spin and lasting activity.
Rajat Mittal
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Engineering
Extend the Force Partitioning Method, which splits drag into vortex, viscous and shear contributions, to turbulent flow over smooth, transitionally rough, fully rough and patchy walls using direct numerical simulations.
Eve Lee
University of California-San Diego, CA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Separate the effects of dust-gas coupling, the Stokes number (St), from gas turbulence, the effective viscosity (alpha), by applying the dust equation of motion to a large sample of protoplanetary disks with rings.
The school
University of California-Santa Cruz: 15 labs on PI Pages, $218M a year on research, 183 research doctorates a year.
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