![Felix Priestley](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/3797?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Felix Priestley
Research Associate
Astronomy
Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics Research and Technology
School of Physics and Astronomy
- PriestleyF@cardiff.ac.uk
- Queen's Buildings - North Building, Room N/3.25, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 3AA
Overview
I'm a postdoc working on star formation in filaments, largely by running MHD simulations to investigate how the magnetic field strength and aligment affects filament formation and fragmentation. I'm also interested in using astrochemistry as a tracer of the dynamics in star forming regions, and the formation and destruction of dust in supernova remnants.
Publication
2024
- Milisavljevic, D. et al. 2024. A JWST survey of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 965(2), article number: L27. (10.3847/2041-8213/ad324b)
- Kirchschlager, F., Sartorio, N. S., De Looze, I., Barlow, M. J., Schmidt, F. D. and Priestley, F. D. 2024. From total destruction to complete survival: dust processing at different evolutionary stages in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 528(3), pp. 5364–5376. (10.1093/mnras/stae365)
- Rigby, A. J. et al. 2024. The dynamic centres of infrared-dark clouds and the formation of cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 528(2), pp. 1172–1197. (10.1093/mnras/stae030)
- Prole, L. R., Clark, P. C., Priestley, F. D., Glover, S. C. O. and Regan, J. A. 2024. Population III star formation: multiple gas phases prevent the use of an equation of state at high densities. The Open Journal of Astrophysics 7 (10.21105/astro.2310.10730)
2023
- Priestley, F. D., Clark, P. C., Glover, S. C. O., Ragan, S. E., Feher, O., Prole, L. R. and Klessen, R. S. 2023. NEATH – II. N2H+ as a tracer of imminent star formation in quiescent high-density gas. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 526(4), pp. 4952–4960. (10.1093/mnras/stad3089)
- Priestley, F. D., Clark, P. C., Glover, S. C. O., Ragan, S. E., Feher, O., Prole, L. R. and Klessen, R. S. 2023. Non-equilibrium abundances treated holistically (NEATH): the molecular composition of star-forming clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 524(4), pp. 5971–5983. (10.1093/mnras/stad2278)
- Priestley, F. D., Arzoumanian, D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2023. Line emission from filaments in molecular clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 522(3), pp. 3890-3897. (10.1093/mnras/stad1229)
- Karoly, J. et al. 2023. The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Studying the Complex Magnetic Field of L43. Astrophysical Journal 952(1), article number: 29. (10.3847/1538-4357/acd6f2)
- Prole, L. R., Schauer, A. T. P., Clark, P. C., Glover, S. C. O., Priestley, F. D. and Klessen, R. S. 2023. From dark matter halos to pre-stellar cores: High resolution follow-up of cosmological Lyman-Werner simulations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 520(2), pp. 2081-2093. (10.1093/mnras/stad188)
- Priestley, F. D., Clark, P. C. and Whitworth, A. P. 2023. Do simulated molecular clouds look like real ones?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 519(4), pp. 6392–6400. (10.1093/mnras/stad150)
- Ward-Thompson, D. et al. 2023. First BISTRO observations of the dark cloud Taurus L1495A-B10: the role of the magnetic field in the earliest stages of low-mass star formation. Astrophysical Journal 946(2) (10.3847/1538-4357/acbea4)
2022
- Ching, T. et al. 2022. The JCMT BISTRO-2 survey: magnetic fields of the massive DR21 filament. Astrophysical Journal 941, article number: 122. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac9dfb)
- Hwang, J. et al. 2022. The JCMT BISTRO Survey: a spiral magnetic field in a hub-filament structure, Monoceros R2. Astrophysical Journal 941(1), article number: 51. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac99e0)
- Chastenet, J. et al. 2022. SOFIA/HAWC+ observations of the Crab Nebula: dust properties from polarized emission. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 516(3), pp. 4229-4244. (10.1093/mnras/stac2413)
- Priestley, F., Whitworth, A. and Fogerty, E. 2022. Differences in chemical evolution between isolated and embedded prestellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 518(4), pp. 4839-4844. (10.1093/mnras/stac3444)
- Whitworth, A., Priestley, F. and Geen, S. T. 2022. Ionizing feedback from an O star formed in a shock-compressed layer. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 517(4), pp. 4940-4949. (10.1093/mnras/stac2955)
- Priestley, F. D., Chawner, H., Barlow, M. J., De Looze, I., Gomez, H. L. and Matsuura, M. 2022. Properties of shocked dust grains in supernova remnants. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 516(2), pp. 2314-2325. (10.1093/mnras/stac2408)
- Priestley, F. D., Yin, C. and Wurster, J. 2022. The initial magnetic criticality of pre-stellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 515(4), pp. 5689-5697. (10.1093/mnras/stac2107)
- Matsuura, M. et al. 2022. Spitzer and Herschel studies of dust in supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 513(1), pp. 1154-1174. (10.1093/mnras/stac583)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2022. The widths of magnetized filaments in molecular clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 512(1), pp. 1407–1414. (10.1093/mnras/stac627)
- Kwon, W. et al. 2022. B-fields in Star-forming Region Observations (BISTRO): Magnetic fields in the filamentary structures of Serpens Main. Astrophysical Journal 926(2), article number: 163. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac4bbe)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2022. The origin of a universal filament width in molecular clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 509(1), pp. 1494–1503. (10.1093/mnras/stab2816)
- Priestley, F. D., De Looze, I. and Barlow, M. J. 2022. The impact of metallicity-dependent dust destruction on the dust-to-metals ratio in galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - Letters 509(1), pp. L6–L10. (10.1093/mnrasl/slab114)
- Priestley, F. D., Arias, M., Barlow, M. J. and De Looze, I. 2022. Dust destruction and survival in the Cassiopeia A reverse shock. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 509(3), pp. 3163–3171. (10.1093/mnras/stab3195)
2021
- Whitworth, A. P., Priestley, F. D. and Arzoumanian, D. 2021. A systematic bias in fitting the surface-density profiles of interstellar filaments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 508(2), pp. 2736–2742. (10.1093/mnras/stab2782)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2021. Molecular line signatures of cloud-cloud collisions. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 506(1), pp. 775–780. (10.1093/mnras/stab1777)
- Lyo, A. et al. 2021. The JCMT BISTRO survey: an 850/450 μm polarization study of NGC 2071IR in Orion B. Astrophysical Journal 918(2), article number: 85. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac0ce9)
- Whitworth, A. P. and Priestley, F. D. 2021. Ionizing feedback from an O star formed in a filament. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 504(3), pp. 3156-3165. (10.1093/mnras/stab1125)
- Yin, C., Priestley, F. D. and Wurster, J. 2021. Investigating the role of magnetic fields in star formation using molecular line profiles. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 504(2), pp. 2381-2389. (10.1093/mnras/stab1039)
- Priestley, F. D., Wurster, J. and Viti, S. 2021. Erratum: Ambipolar diffusion and the molecular abundances in pre-stellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 503(2), pp. 2899–2901. (10.1093/mnras/stab702)
- Priestley, F. D., De Looze, I. and Barlow, M. J. 2021. The efficiency of grain growth in the diffuse interstellar medium. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 502(2), pp. 2438-2445. (10.1093/mnras/stab122)
- Priestley, F. D., Chawner, H., Matsuura, M., De Looze, I., Barlow, M. J. and Gomez, H. L. 2021. Revisiting the dust destruction efficiency of supernovae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 500(2), pp. 2543-2553. (10.1093/mnras/staa3445)
2020
- Chawner, H. et al. 2020. A galactic dust devil: far-infrared observations of the tornado supernova remnant candidate. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 499(4) (10.1093/mnras/staa2925)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2020. Synthetic line and continuum observations of simulated turbulent clouds: the apparent widths of filaments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 499(3), pp. 3728-3737. (10.1093/mnras/staa3111)
- Priestley, F. D., Bevan, A., Barlow, M. J. and De Looze, I. 2020. Constraining early-time dust formation in core-collapse supernovae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 497(2), pp. 2227-2238. (10.1093/mnras/staa2121)
- Whitworth, A. P. and Priestley, F. D. 2020. The apparent anticorrelation between the mass opacity of interstellar dust and the surface density of interstellar gas. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - Letters 494(1), pp. L48-L52. (10.1093/mnrasl/slaa034)
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J., De Looze, I. and Chawner, H. 2020. Dust masses and grain size distributions of a sample of Galactic pulsar wind nebulae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 491(4), pp. 6020-6031. (10.1093/mnras/stz3434)
2019
- Kirchschlager, F., Schmidt, F. D., Barlow, M. J., Fogerty, E. L., Bevan, A. and Priestley, F. D. 2019. Dust survival rates in clumps passing through the Cas A reverse shock - I. Results for a range of clump densities. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 489(4), pp. 4465-4496. (10.1093/mnras/stz2399)
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J. and Viti, S. 2019. Erratum: Modelling the ArH+ emission from the Crab Nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488(4), pp. 5437. (10.1093/mnras/stz2133)
- De Looze, I. et al. 2019. The dust content of the Crab Nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488(1), pp. 164-182. (10.1093/mnras/stz1533)
- Priestley, F. D., Wurster, J. and Viti, S. 2019. Ambipolar diffusion and the molecular abundances in pre-stellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488(2), pp. 2357-2364. (10.1093/mnras/stz1869)
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J. and De Looze, I. 2019. The mass, location, and heating of the dust in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 485(1), pp. 440-451. (10.1093/mnras/stz414)
2018
- Priestley, F. D. and Barlow, M. J. 2018. OH+ emission from cometary knots in planetary nebulae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 478(2), pp. 1502-1511. (10.1093/mnras/sty1099)
- Priestley, F. D., Viti, S. and Williams, D. A. 2018. An efficient method for determining the chemical evolution of gravitationally collapsing prestellar cores. Astronomical Journal 156(2), article number: 51. (10.3847/1538-3881/aac957)
2017
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J. and Viti, S. 2017. Modelling the ArH+ emission from the Crab nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 472(4), pp. 4444-4455. (10.1093/mnras/stx2327)
- Holdship, J., Viti, S., Jiménez-Serra, I., Makrymallis, A. and Priestley, F. 2017. UCLCHEM: A Gas-grain Chemical Code for Clouds, Cores, and C-Shocks. Astronomical Journal 154(1), pp. 38. (10.3847/1538-3881/aa773f)
Erthyglau
- Milisavljevic, D. et al. 2024. A JWST survey of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 965(2), article number: L27. (10.3847/2041-8213/ad324b)
- Kirchschlager, F., Sartorio, N. S., De Looze, I., Barlow, M. J., Schmidt, F. D. and Priestley, F. D. 2024. From total destruction to complete survival: dust processing at different evolutionary stages in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 528(3), pp. 5364–5376. (10.1093/mnras/stae365)
- Rigby, A. J. et al. 2024. The dynamic centres of infrared-dark clouds and the formation of cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 528(2), pp. 1172–1197. (10.1093/mnras/stae030)
- Prole, L. R., Clark, P. C., Priestley, F. D., Glover, S. C. O. and Regan, J. A. 2024. Population III star formation: multiple gas phases prevent the use of an equation of state at high densities. The Open Journal of Astrophysics 7 (10.21105/astro.2310.10730)
- Priestley, F. D., Clark, P. C., Glover, S. C. O., Ragan, S. E., Feher, O., Prole, L. R. and Klessen, R. S. 2023. NEATH – II. N2H+ as a tracer of imminent star formation in quiescent high-density gas. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 526(4), pp. 4952–4960. (10.1093/mnras/stad3089)
- Priestley, F. D., Clark, P. C., Glover, S. C. O., Ragan, S. E., Feher, O., Prole, L. R. and Klessen, R. S. 2023. Non-equilibrium abundances treated holistically (NEATH): the molecular composition of star-forming clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 524(4), pp. 5971–5983. (10.1093/mnras/stad2278)
- Priestley, F. D., Arzoumanian, D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2023. Line emission from filaments in molecular clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 522(3), pp. 3890-3897. (10.1093/mnras/stad1229)
- Karoly, J. et al. 2023. The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Studying the Complex Magnetic Field of L43. Astrophysical Journal 952(1), article number: 29. (10.3847/1538-4357/acd6f2)
- Prole, L. R., Schauer, A. T. P., Clark, P. C., Glover, S. C. O., Priestley, F. D. and Klessen, R. S. 2023. From dark matter halos to pre-stellar cores: High resolution follow-up of cosmological Lyman-Werner simulations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 520(2), pp. 2081-2093. (10.1093/mnras/stad188)
- Priestley, F. D., Clark, P. C. and Whitworth, A. P. 2023. Do simulated molecular clouds look like real ones?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 519(4), pp. 6392–6400. (10.1093/mnras/stad150)
- Ward-Thompson, D. et al. 2023. First BISTRO observations of the dark cloud Taurus L1495A-B10: the role of the magnetic field in the earliest stages of low-mass star formation. Astrophysical Journal 946(2) (10.3847/1538-4357/acbea4)
- Ching, T. et al. 2022. The JCMT BISTRO-2 survey: magnetic fields of the massive DR21 filament. Astrophysical Journal 941, article number: 122. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac9dfb)
- Hwang, J. et al. 2022. The JCMT BISTRO Survey: a spiral magnetic field in a hub-filament structure, Monoceros R2. Astrophysical Journal 941(1), article number: 51. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac99e0)
- Chastenet, J. et al. 2022. SOFIA/HAWC+ observations of the Crab Nebula: dust properties from polarized emission. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 516(3), pp. 4229-4244. (10.1093/mnras/stac2413)
- Priestley, F., Whitworth, A. and Fogerty, E. 2022. Differences in chemical evolution between isolated and embedded prestellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 518(4), pp. 4839-4844. (10.1093/mnras/stac3444)
- Whitworth, A., Priestley, F. and Geen, S. T. 2022. Ionizing feedback from an O star formed in a shock-compressed layer. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 517(4), pp. 4940-4949. (10.1093/mnras/stac2955)
- Priestley, F. D., Chawner, H., Barlow, M. J., De Looze, I., Gomez, H. L. and Matsuura, M. 2022. Properties of shocked dust grains in supernova remnants. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 516(2), pp. 2314-2325. (10.1093/mnras/stac2408)
- Priestley, F. D., Yin, C. and Wurster, J. 2022. The initial magnetic criticality of pre-stellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 515(4), pp. 5689-5697. (10.1093/mnras/stac2107)
- Matsuura, M. et al. 2022. Spitzer and Herschel studies of dust in supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 513(1), pp. 1154-1174. (10.1093/mnras/stac583)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2022. The widths of magnetized filaments in molecular clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 512(1), pp. 1407–1414. (10.1093/mnras/stac627)
- Kwon, W. et al. 2022. B-fields in Star-forming Region Observations (BISTRO): Magnetic fields in the filamentary structures of Serpens Main. Astrophysical Journal 926(2), article number: 163. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac4bbe)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2022. The origin of a universal filament width in molecular clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 509(1), pp. 1494–1503. (10.1093/mnras/stab2816)
- Priestley, F. D., De Looze, I. and Barlow, M. J. 2022. The impact of metallicity-dependent dust destruction on the dust-to-metals ratio in galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - Letters 509(1), pp. L6–L10. (10.1093/mnrasl/slab114)
- Priestley, F. D., Arias, M., Barlow, M. J. and De Looze, I. 2022. Dust destruction and survival in the Cassiopeia A reverse shock. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 509(3), pp. 3163–3171. (10.1093/mnras/stab3195)
- Whitworth, A. P., Priestley, F. D. and Arzoumanian, D. 2021. A systematic bias in fitting the surface-density profiles of interstellar filaments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 508(2), pp. 2736–2742. (10.1093/mnras/stab2782)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2021. Molecular line signatures of cloud-cloud collisions. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 506(1), pp. 775–780. (10.1093/mnras/stab1777)
- Lyo, A. et al. 2021. The JCMT BISTRO survey: an 850/450 μm polarization study of NGC 2071IR in Orion B. Astrophysical Journal 918(2), article number: 85. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac0ce9)
- Whitworth, A. P. and Priestley, F. D. 2021. Ionizing feedback from an O star formed in a filament. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 504(3), pp. 3156-3165. (10.1093/mnras/stab1125)
- Yin, C., Priestley, F. D. and Wurster, J. 2021. Investigating the role of magnetic fields in star formation using molecular line profiles. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 504(2), pp. 2381-2389. (10.1093/mnras/stab1039)
- Priestley, F. D., Wurster, J. and Viti, S. 2021. Erratum: Ambipolar diffusion and the molecular abundances in pre-stellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 503(2), pp. 2899–2901. (10.1093/mnras/stab702)
- Priestley, F. D., De Looze, I. and Barlow, M. J. 2021. The efficiency of grain growth in the diffuse interstellar medium. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 502(2), pp. 2438-2445. (10.1093/mnras/stab122)
- Priestley, F. D., Chawner, H., Matsuura, M., De Looze, I., Barlow, M. J. and Gomez, H. L. 2021. Revisiting the dust destruction efficiency of supernovae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 500(2), pp. 2543-2553. (10.1093/mnras/staa3445)
- Chawner, H. et al. 2020. A galactic dust devil: far-infrared observations of the tornado supernova remnant candidate. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 499(4) (10.1093/mnras/staa2925)
- Priestley, F. D. and Whitworth, A. P. 2020. Synthetic line and continuum observations of simulated turbulent clouds: the apparent widths of filaments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 499(3), pp. 3728-3737. (10.1093/mnras/staa3111)
- Priestley, F. D., Bevan, A., Barlow, M. J. and De Looze, I. 2020. Constraining early-time dust formation in core-collapse supernovae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 497(2), pp. 2227-2238. (10.1093/mnras/staa2121)
- Whitworth, A. P. and Priestley, F. D. 2020. The apparent anticorrelation between the mass opacity of interstellar dust and the surface density of interstellar gas. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - Letters 494(1), pp. L48-L52. (10.1093/mnrasl/slaa034)
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J., De Looze, I. and Chawner, H. 2020. Dust masses and grain size distributions of a sample of Galactic pulsar wind nebulae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 491(4), pp. 6020-6031. (10.1093/mnras/stz3434)
- Kirchschlager, F., Schmidt, F. D., Barlow, M. J., Fogerty, E. L., Bevan, A. and Priestley, F. D. 2019. Dust survival rates in clumps passing through the Cas A reverse shock - I. Results for a range of clump densities. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 489(4), pp. 4465-4496. (10.1093/mnras/stz2399)
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J. and Viti, S. 2019. Erratum: Modelling the ArH+ emission from the Crab Nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488(4), pp. 5437. (10.1093/mnras/stz2133)
- De Looze, I. et al. 2019. The dust content of the Crab Nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488(1), pp. 164-182. (10.1093/mnras/stz1533)
- Priestley, F. D., Wurster, J. and Viti, S. 2019. Ambipolar diffusion and the molecular abundances in pre-stellar cores. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488(2), pp. 2357-2364. (10.1093/mnras/stz1869)
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J. and De Looze, I. 2019. The mass, location, and heating of the dust in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 485(1), pp. 440-451. (10.1093/mnras/stz414)
- Priestley, F. D. and Barlow, M. J. 2018. OH+ emission from cometary knots in planetary nebulae. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 478(2), pp. 1502-1511. (10.1093/mnras/sty1099)
- Priestley, F. D., Viti, S. and Williams, D. A. 2018. An efficient method for determining the chemical evolution of gravitationally collapsing prestellar cores. Astronomical Journal 156(2), article number: 51. (10.3847/1538-3881/aac957)
- Priestley, F. D., Barlow, M. J. and Viti, S. 2017. Modelling the ArH+ emission from the Crab nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 472(4), pp. 4444-4455. (10.1093/mnras/stx2327)
- Holdship, J., Viti, S., Jiménez-Serra, I., Makrymallis, A. and Priestley, F. 2017. UCLCHEM: A Gas-grain Chemical Code for Clouds, Cores, and C-Shocks. Astronomical Journal 154(1), pp. 38. (10.3847/1538-3881/aa773f)
Research
My job at Cardiff is to run MHD models of filaments in star forming regions. Changing the magnetic field strength and orientation can completely alter how the filament grows and fragments, with subsequent effects on the prestellar and protostellar cores formed. As there is no direct way to measure gas density in molecular environments, I also post-process these models with an astrochemical code to look for variations in observable molecules, which could provide a clean test of theories of star formation.
At the other end of the stellar life cycle, I'm also interested in dust formed (and destroyed) by supernovae. Core-collapse supernovae are possibly the dominant source of dust in the early universe, and are definitely the main source of destruction. I combine theoretical dust emission models with infrared observations to investigate dust properties beyond the mass and temperature returned by simple modified blackbody fits, such as the composition and size distribution.
Biography
I did an MSci Astrophysics at UCL, working on astrochemical models of star formation for my master's project. After failing to get any offers in star formation I stayed at UCL for my PhD, which ended up being split between molecular emission from ionized nebulae and dust in supernova remnants. I was a postdoc at UCL for slightly less than a year, continuing to work on supernova dust while also taking up star formation again, before moving to Cardiff for my current position.
