2020-12-15 10:00 Abstract
Title: Stars and Supernovae: What can we learn from their optical signals, chemical abundances and remnants?
Speaker: Dr. Shing-Chi Leung
Date: December 15 at 10:00
Location: R521, General Building II
Abstract:
Stars are essential to the evolution of the universe for their contribution to cosmic chemical diversity and their explosions as supernovae. However, the physical picture of stars and supernovae is far from complete. New observational data has been constantly challenging the physical picture about stars and supernovae. Thus, developing the connection between observational data and theoretical models will give us the insights to understand the diversified observational data from various projects, such as transient surveys, first star searches, gravitational wave detectors and neutrino experiments. They will reveal physical processes of stars and the roles of stars in the cosmic evolution. In this talk, I will discuss how numerical simulations help us learn about different perspectives of stars. I will use Type Ia supernova and pulsational pair-instability supernova as examples. I will show how we can apply numerical models of stellar evolution and supernova explosions to extract physics from observational data, such as optical signals, chemical abundances and stellar remnants. Finally, I will discuss the importance of massive star evolution and its connection to other fields in astrophysics.