Research Symposium

BIO

I was raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I grew up with one parent being an engineer and the other being an artist. I like to think this is what gave me an interest in science that is more abstract or theoretical. I want to learn and discover many new things that we still question today, like dark matter. To do this, I hope to become a college professor and research stellar evolution or cosmology. I plan to go to graduate school and do more research before I graduate to make this dream a reality.

White Dwarf Flame Front Data Analysis

Abstract

A Type Ia supernova is the result of a white dwarf star. It is an explosion process where in one scenario nuclear reactions are restarted in the core of a massive white dwarf. Since these events happen without prior warning and it is impossible to see inside a star, their computer modeling offers the most informative means of learning about their evolution.
Our goal in this project is to improve one component of physics participating in the explosion process. Specifically, we are concerned with the properties of flames, which are burning fronts that power the explosion. We study the properties of these flames using a stellar evolution code, MESA. In the simulations, we record the speed and width of the flame front depending on the fuel density and its composition. The improved information about the flame structure and evolution will make it possible to obtain more accurate explosion models. We compare our results to the results of previous studies of the flame evolution problem and discuss possible future research directions in this area.

Keywords: Data, Astrophysics, Star, Flame, Astronomy