Evolution of baryonic matter from clouds to planets
Pierre Hily-Blant

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Contact

Contact

Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
BP 53, 414 rue de la Piscine
F-38041 Grenoble cedex 9

Teaching

Research

My research is developed in the context of star and planet formation, bringing together physical and chemical perspectives. The question is developed along two topics: formation of filaments and dense cores in molecular clouds, and the interstellar heritage from cores to disks to planets.

Turbulence in molecular clouds

Introduction

The main question is to understand what is the role of turbulence in the formation of star forming filaments.

Current research projects

  1. PhD of Alexandre Perroni (2023-2026): CO chemistry in turbulent molecular clouds
    1. Funding: UGA Physics doctoral school
  2. M2 internship of Hugo Bossard (March-July 2024)
    1. Measuring the solenoidal and compressive components from CO observations of molecular clouds
  3. PhD of Simon Delcamp: Coherent structures of molecular clouds turbulence
    1. ERC MIST funding 2020-2024
    2. defended February, 2nd 2024

The MIST project

Activity
Presentation

This research is part of the MIST ERC advanced grant 2017-2022, P.I.: E. Falgarone

MIST stands for "Molecules, magnetic fields and Intermittency in coSmic Turbulence: Following the energy trail".

Abstract

The discovery of molecules in the early universe is a challenging providence. Molecules unveil the truly cold universe in which stars form and their rich versatility provides unique diagnostics to unravel the "relative importance of purely gravitational effects and gas dynamical effects involving dissipation and radiative cooling", recognized 40 years ago by White and Rees to be a central issue in theories of galaxy formation. Molecules also reveal that cosmic turbulence is far less dissipative than predicted by cosmological simulations, with a broad equipartition in a vast variety of media between the thermal energy of the hottest phases and the turbulent energy of the coldest. Our project focuses on the physics of turbulent dissipation, and its link to the emergence of molecules, in the magnetized compressible medium where gravitational instability develops to form stars and seed galaxies in the early universe. It builds on a fundamental property of turbulence, its space-time intermittency: dissipation occurs in bursts. Our team will foster strong interactions between three main research axes: (1) observations of the chemical and thermal markers of turbulent dissipation in the high-redshift and local universe, (2) statistical analyses of the magnetic and velocity fields in samples of unprecedented size and sensitivity to study the non-Gaussian signatures of turbulent dissipation, and (3) numerical experiments dedicated to (a) the space-time structures of turbulent dissipation and the formation of molecules in their wake, and (b) the split of the energy trails between hot/thermal and cold/turbulent phases. This project will benefit from the prodigious capabilities of the ALMA and NOEMA interferometers, the launch of the JWST in 2018, and the Planck satellite data on polarized Galactic foregrounds. The ENS Physics Department, with its strong theoretical and experimental expertise on turbulence, is an ideal place to house such a project.

Participants
Name Position
Edith Falgarone PI of the MIST project; Emeritus, LPENS
Francois Boulanger CNRS
Simon Delcamp PhD 2019-2022
Benjamin Godard CNAP
Pierre Hily-Blant Université Grenoble Alpes
Andrew Lehmann Post-doc
Francois Levrier LPENS
Pierre Lesaffre CNRS
Guillaume Pineau des Forêts Emeritus, Obs. de Paris
Thibaud Richard PhD
Alba Vidal Garcia Post-doc

Past studies

  • Statistical properties and intermittent structures of turbulence in the Polaris and Taurus molecular clouds
  • Main papers:

The interstellar heritage of planetary systems

Overview

Questions

  • Origin of the volatile composition of protoplanetary disks: interstellar inheritance or full reset?
  • The ONISYS project
    • What is the origin of nitrogen in comets ?
    • In which forms were nitrogen volatiles recorded in cosmomaterials ?

Methods

  • Observations (ALMA, IRAM, etc)
  • Isotopic ratios
  • Disk modelling

Recent results

  • A new scenario for the origin of nitrogen in the solar system (A&A article)
    • Observations of the disk orbiting TW Hya with ALMA
    • Measure the radial dependence of the nitrogen isotopic ratio in CN and HCN
    • See the A&A highlight and here for a non-specialist overview.

twhya-cn-hcn-outreach1.png

People

Name Affiliation
Lydie Bonal IPAG
Alexandre Faure IPAG
Thierry Forveille IPAG
Joel Kastner Rochester Institute of Technology
Victor Magalhaes de Souza IRAM Grenoble
François Ménard IPAG
Guillaume Pineau des Forêts IAS, Obs. de Paris
Olivier Poch IPAG
Eric Quirico IPAG
Claire Rist IPAG
Véronique Vuitton IPAG

Workshops

Astrochemistry

Team

Name Affiliation
Alexandre Faure IPAG
Claire Rist IPAG
Guillaume Pineau des Forêts IAS, Obs. de Paris
David Flower Durham University
Romane Le Gal Center for Astrophysics

Chemical networks

Tips and tricks

For the non-geek scientist

Useful links

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