Cosmic chemical enrichment and dust production in the era of JWST

The universe started from the Big Bang, stars form and die, producing heavier elements in the universe. Some of the heavy elements are in a solid state - dust.

Therefore, elemental abundance of stars and galaxies, as well as the composition of dust in galaxies, can give a stringent constraint on the formation and evolution of galaxies. With the James Webb Space Telescope, elemental abundances are estimated even at very distant galaxies (redshift 8-10).

The student will develop self-consistent hydrodynamical simulations including elements and dust, based on our own simulation code.

Supercomputer facilities, local LINUX cluster and national supercomputer facility (DiRAC), will also be provided to produce world-class simulation data.

The simulations will follow formation of stars, death of stars (supernovae), production of elements (nucleosynthesis), growth of black holes, and feedback from super-massive blackholes. By comparing observational data, the student will investigate how galaxies form and evolve in a cosmological context.