Isabelle J Jones

Protoplanetary disks have been imaged with complex features within them that could be forming planets or other physical processes within the disk (Salum et al 2019). The aim of this project is to create hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary disks to attempt to replicate what we are observing.

Several computational models have been created to simulate low mass star formation; However, these models included cold constant accretion despite observations depicting accretion around low mass forming stars to be episodic with heat (Kunitomo et al 2016). This project aimed to correct this to make star formation models more physically accurate with MESA. These models demonstrate how variable accretion impacts stellar parameters such as luminosity and temperature of a forming star before it reaches the main sequence. We find that the effects of accretion history and initial mass on the stellar parameters of pre-main sequence low mass stars produces variation in the path the forming star takes to reach the main sequence on the HR diagram, necessitating the need for different observational analytical tools for pre-main sequence stars. Results will be published in Jones et. al 2025 (in prep).