TAPIR Seminar
Mattia has completed his undergraduate studies in theoretical physics at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy in 2012, and then moved to Oxford for a PhD in astrophysics under the supervision of James Binney and John Magorrian. After a brief parentheses as business consultant in Milan, he moved to Heidelberg in 2016 where he has been a postdoc in the group of Ralf Klessen for the last five years. Mattia’s main research interest is the structure, dynamics and evolution of the Milky Way and in particular of the Galactic centre.
To Join via Zoom
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/89695722750
I will give an introduction to gas dynamics and star formation in the central region (R<3kpc) of the Milky Way. This region is dominated by the strongly non-axisymmetric gravitational potential of the Galactic bar. After reviewing the basic theoretical tools, I will discuss several topics including (1) how to interpret the observed longitude-velocity maps of CO, HI and other interstellar gas tracers; (2) how we can use this to constrain the properties of the Galactic bar; (iii) how the gas is driven inwards from the Galactic disc (R~3kpc) down to the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ, R~120pc) and then to the central black hole SgrA*; (iv) the spatial and temporal distribution of star formation in the CMZ; (v) the structure and formation of the Nuclear Stellar Disc, a flattened high-density stellar structure that dominates the gravitational potential of the Milky Way at 30<R<300pc.