Speaker
Description
The modeling of stars and stellar populations is a key element in our understanding of the Universe, and plays a large role in the scientific exploitation of observations as astronomy moves into the big data era. However, despite the identification of the key processes and fundamental equations that drive stellar evolution almost a century ago, and the broad availability of numerical methods to model stellar evolution, several important questions remain. In this talk, I want to delve into the methods used in the present to model stellar evolution, how these have evolved since the first numerical simulations of the early 60s, and how further progress can be made in the field. In particular, I will highlight how new developments coming both from new observations (such as gravitational wave sources and exotic supernovae) and theoretical uncertainties are pushing the limit of what we can achieve with our current tools. Despite the progress in computational hardware given by Moore's law, the long time-scales of stellar evolution remain restricted to 1D evolutionary calculations, while complex 3D phenomena can only be traced for short dynamical evolutionary timescales. I will highlight how progress in key areas requires a careful interfacing between 1D and 3D results, and emphasize the very important role of open science and open source in the field.
| Talk category | Plenary |
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