Award Date

5-1-2021

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Physics and Astronomy

First Committee Member

Rebecca Martin

Second Committee Member

Stephen Lepp

Third Committee Member

George Rhee

Fourth Committee Member

Arya Udry

Number of Pages

269

Abstract

My research deals with highly topical areas of astrophysics, such as planet habitability, stellar evolution, the origin of fast radio bursts, the evolution of debris discs, and the dynamics of accretion discs in binary and higher-order star systems. Accretion discs around binary star systems are ubiquitous in the galaxy and planet formation is thought to occur within these discs. Circumbinary discs are commonly observed to be misaligned with respect to the binary orbital plane. A misaligned circumbinary disc eventually evolve to a stable orientation, either coplanar or polar with the binary orbital plane. The process of disc alignment has important implications for planet formation. By understanding the structure and evolution of these discs and also debris discs, I shed light on the observed characteristics of exoplanets. The majority of my doctoral research is to study the gas dynamics in binary and higher-order star systems with an emphasis on explaining observations and developing theoretical models to better constrain planet formation mechanisms. My results unravel robust planet formation scenarios, which have far reaching implications for the present and upcoming observations from space telescope TESS. Furthermore, the next-generation telescopes, such as James Webb Space Telescope and Thirty Meter Telescope will fuel the discovery of planets within binary and higher-order star systems.

Keywords

Astrophysics; Debris disc; Fast radio bursts; Planet habitability

Disciplines

Astrophysics and Astronomy | Physics

File Format

pdf

File Size

13800 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS