Simulation of Galactic Evolution
My supervisor Dr. Kuljeet Kaur Marhas, Physical Research Laboratory had experimentally obtained the composition of elements in the universe. However, what was unknown was how exactly the universe evolved to give such a composition of isotopes. I was marveled at how running simulations on my laptop at my home could help me find answers to this profound question!
I carried out an extensive study on the parameters to be taken into consideration while simulating the galactic evolution. The aim of the simulation was to compare observational isotopic mass ratios (of transition elements like iron, cobalt) with theoretical results. I studied concepts like star formation rate, initial mass function, infall episodes and age-metallicity relation. I performed a comparative analysis of the stellar nucleosynthetic yields, infall rate formulations, etc. adopted by existing galactic chemical simulation approaches to select an optimum methodology for the given problem statement.