THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK INC
Grant: $302,302 - National Science Foundation - Sep. 1, 2009
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Award Description: Interactions between the interstellar medium (ISM) of a disk galaxy and the intracluster medium (ICM) of a massive cluster of galaxies will strip gas from infalling galaxies and can lead to color and morphological changes. These interactions can be used as a probe of both ISM and ICM physics. A recent wealth of new data includes observed tails and wakes, and although simulations have shed some light, much remains to be understood, including a mismatch between the predicted and observed width of wakes, the way in which dense, molecular gas is stripped, and the fate of the stripped gas. To answer these questions, this project will increase the realism of stripping simulations, first by adding radiative cooling to idealized galaxies with constant density and velocity winds, using a high-resolution, adaptive-mesh refinement hydrocode. Secondly, those systems will be placed in realistic cosmological simulations of cluster formation and evolution. Finally, the team will add important extra physical processes such as viscosity, heat conduction and magnetic fields into their simulations. Every stage will stress direct observational comparisons. The work will form the core of a PhD thesis, includes a number of projects suitable for undergraduate students, and will involve New York high school teachers and students through the Science Research Training Program. The growing realism of simulations enables high-quality visualizations to convey up-to-date research results to students and the general public, as the PI has done before, in collaboration with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the American Museum of Natural History.
Project Description: The project purpose and expected outputs remain as defined in the project abstract. We have begun research on this project, with one graduate student working on the project since Sept. 1, 2009.
Jobs Summary: Columbia University Created/Retained a Graduate Research Assistant. Note: Tenured Faculty are excluded from the FTE estimates. (Total jobs reported: 0)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on Sep. 1, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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