Seminar talk on July. 27th, 2018: Molecules in the circumstellar envelopes of Asymptotic Giant Branch stars
Speaker:Xiaohu Li (NAOC)
Venue:Gewu 4410
Time:14:30 PM, Friday, 27th July, 2018
Abstract:Understanding the origin and evolution of circumstellar and interstellar molecules is key to understanding the molecular universe and has become a fundamental goal of modern astrophysics. To date, at least 50% of the interstellar species (in total around 200) were detected in the circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars, which are real “molecular factories” in space and thus attracting great interests from both astronomers and chemists. Thanks to the great progress from the high-quality observations from both space and ground (e.g., Herschel, ALMA, etc.), plus the improvement in the accurate reaction rates of the most abundant molecules and the development of the new astrochemical models, much of successes have been made in the understanding of the compositions and chemistries of these “molecular factories”. In this talk, I will briefly introduce our accomplishments in the investigation of the CSEs of all types of AGB stars. Last but not the least, I will comment on the major challenges and opportunities in this field in the next few years.
Personal Information:Dr. Xiaohu Li received his PH.D. degree on Astrochemistry in the year of 2015 from Leiden University under the supervising of Prof. Ewine van Dishoeck and Dr. Alan Heays, followed by a short-term (three months) postdoc position at the same group. From the June of 2015 to the June of 2018, Dr. Li worked as an East Asian Core Observatories Association (EACOA) Fellow, in collaboration with Prof. Gang Zhao at National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) and Prof. Ciska Kemper at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA). His current position is FAST Fellow, working with Prof. Di Li. Dr. Li’s research focuses on modelling and observations of molecules in the circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of the evolved stars.
