Astronomy Seminar - Dr. Rajika (Reggie) Kuruwita

"Understanding stellar multiplicity in embedded environments"

Presented by Dr. Rajika Kuruwita, Research Fellow, from the Australian National University

Most stars are born in binary/multiple star systems. Stars in these systems interact with each other and the star-forming environment while they are still forming, leading to accretion bursts, protoplanetary disc deformations, ejections and other chaotic events. Many stars that are single today likely formed with stellar siblings in the past. In this talk, I present work looking at how multiple star systems form and evolve from simulations of star cluster formation, and how this compares with observed protostellar multiplicity statistics. I then show recent work zooming in on stars in the cluster simulation to tackle a 90yr mystery of FU Orionis accretion bursts in young stars.