Friday, September 8th, 2006

 

Dr. Jennifer L. Hoffman, University of California at Berkeley

" Polarization of Circumstellar Material Across the H-R Diagram "

2:00 pm in room P-148

Stars do not evolve in isolation, but rather interact with their surroundings in a variety of ways throughout their lifetimes. Configurations of gas such as disks, winds, jets, and outflows mediate between stars and their local environments, from the youngest accreting prestellar systems to the most spectacular supernova explosions. Using examples from various stages of stellar evolution, I will discuss the ways astronomers can study these interactions by using polarimetric observations and numerical modeling to probe the geometrical and optical characteristics of circumstellar matter distributions.