Research
My research focuses on how stars form in the turbulent, magnetized interstellar medium. Star-forming clouds are shaped by supersonic motions, shocks, gravity, and magnetic fields, producing a rich network of filaments and dense cores. Understanding how these structures arise and how they feed forming stars requires linking physics across a huge range of scales, from parsec-sized clouds down to the immediate environment of protostars.
A central goal is to explain what sets the distribution of stellar masses (the initial mass function), including the formation of massive stars. I combine analytical ideas with large-scale numerical simulations of supersonic (often MHD) turbulence and self-gravitating gas, and I compare simulation outputs to observations through synthetic observations and statistical diagnostics.
Star Formation
How turbulence and gravity concentrate gas into filaments, hubs, and collapsing regions; when and where collapse begins; and how gas is transported to forming stars.
ISM Turbulence
The structure and statistics of supersonic turbulence, the role of magnetic fields, and how turbulent flows regulate density fluctuations, fragmentation, and star-formation efficiency.
Planet Formation
How protoplanetary disks are assembled and sustained around young stars; whether they are finite remnants of core collapse or are continually fed by accretion from the surrounding cloud; how mass and angular momentum are delivered, redistributed, and lost; and how disk structure, turbulence, magnetic fields, and inflow regulate fragmentation, dust growth, and the efficiency and timescale of planet formation.