Supervisor: Dr Dirk Froebrich
The project will focus on understanding the structure and evolution of the
inner accretion disks around young stars. The candidate will utilise
existing and new high cadence, multi filter optical observations of young
stellar objects to to identify stars whose variability is dominated by
occultation events of material in the inner disk. These data will be
utilised to infer so called ‘variability fingerprints’ and the candidate
will develop statistical methods to statistically compare and characterise
these fingerprints. A comparison with disk structures extracted from
numerical simulations is also envisaged.
The candidate will be expected to obtain additional data during the
project with our Beacon Observatory, as well as work with existing data
obtained as part of the HOYS citizen science project. The latter will
involve continued engagement with our community of amateur astronomers and
the development of observing strategies for them to maximise the
usefulness of their contributions. Furthermore, the candidate will be
expected to exploit other existing, relevant and public datasets as part
of the project.
For enquires about the projects please contact Dr Dirk Froebrich.