Spectroscopic analysis of non-spherical stellar envelopes

• Grant number: 10/16975-2
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Duration: July 05, 2011 - July 18, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Stellar Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Alex Cavaliéri Carciofi
• Grantee: Alex Cavaliéri Carciofi
• Visiting researcher: Janos Zsargo
• Visiting researcher institution: Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

We propose an international collaborative research visit by Prof. János Zsargó (Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México) to the University of São Paulo to strengthen and enhance the ongoing collaboration between him and Prof. Carciofi (Univ. of São Paulo). Prof. Carciofi is the author of HDUST, a leading radiative transfer code based on the Monte Carlo method that can handle complex three-dimensional configurations. The main weakness of HDUST is that it is currently restricted to a simplistic chemical composition of the gas. Prof. Zsargó has a long experience with CMFGEN (author John Hillier, Univ. of Pittisburg), another leading radiative transfer code that can handle quite complex chemical compositions but is restricted to simple spherical geometries. The goal of the visit is to start working on an ambitious and possibly long-term project of combining HDUST with CMFGEN, thereby producing the first intrinsically three-dimensional transfer code with a realistic chemical composition. The new code will allow both Prof. Carciofi and Prof. Zsargó (and their collaborators) to pursue more ambitious research programs in their area of expertize, which is hot stellar systems with complex geometries. (AU)