Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Astrophysics Colloquium

Title : From Order to Chaos and Back to Planets

Speaker: Dr. Min-Kai Lin (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics)

Time：3:00 pm Dec.18th (Thursday)

Tencent Meeting：46822606747 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Abstract：

The ubiquity and diversity of the more than 6000 known exoplanets challenge us to understand their birthplaces: the protoplanetary disks surrounding young stars. These disks exhibit complex gas dynamics that play key roles in all stages of planet formation and evolution. I will present our group’s recent theoretical work on the dynamics of embedded dust grains, which provide the raw material for planet formation, under the influence of hydrodynamic instabilities, thermodynamics, magnetic fields, etc., as expected in realistic disks. I will also discuss the rich disk structures induced by young planets, such as gaps and rings, their modeling using artificial intelligence, and a new ambitious effort to simulate disk-planet interaction with an explicit treatment of turbulence. Throughout, I will highlight promising directions for future collaborations.

CV：

Dr. Min-Kai Lin is an Associate Research Fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei. He completed his PhD in 2011 at the University of Cambridge, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics from 2011 to 2014, and was a Steward Theory Fellow at the University of Arizona from 2014 to 2016, before taking up his current faculty position at ASIAA. Dr. Lin's primary expertise is astrophysical fluid dynamics applied to theories of planet formation and evolution.