YRP@Graz - Ferialpraktikum

Projekt: Portierung und Adaptierung der internen Verwaltungswebsite auf aktuelles CMS-System

Betreuer: DI Franz Giner

Als großes Institut nützen wir zur Unterstützung administrativer Aufgaben, wie etwa der Verwaltung der Mitarbeiter:innen, Computer, Software, Lizenzen, Bestellungen, Schließanlage usw., eine Reihe von selbstentwickelten Modulen im bekannten CMS-System Joomla 3. Um nun diese Module für die letzte Version dieses Systems (Joomla 5) anzupassen, suchen wir im Rahmen eines Ferialpraktikums für die Dauer von 4-6 Wochen eine:n HTL-Schüler:in oder Bachelor-Student:in mit Kenntnissen in PHP-Programmierung und SQL-Datenbanken.

Project: Ion trajectories simulation for the calibration of the PICAM instrument onboard ESA/BepiColombo mission

Supervisor: Dr. Gabriel Giono and Dr. Ali Varsani

The Planetary Ion CAMera (PICAM¹) is an ion analyzer onboard the ESA/BepiCOlombo mission on its way to Mercury. PICAM was designed, built and is operated by the IWF. The instrument uses electric field to select incoming ions from the environments and detects the different species (H⁺, He⁺, etc.) by measuring the Time-of-Flight of the particles as they travel between the gate and the detector. The ion flux is controlled by a high voltage is applied on a gate, effectively allowing or blocking the entrance of the instrument to the charged particles. A precise calibration and understanding of the instrument performances are required to interpret the measurements from the nominal science operation starting after orbital insertion around Mercury in early 2026.

The project aims at expanding the existing SIMION² model which allows to calculate the trajectory of the ions inside the instrument. The goal is to derive the exact path length for all the 36 azimuth and elevation segments of the detector, as well as deriving the theoretical effectiveness of the gate voltage at stopping the incoming ions. The results will be compared to laboratory measurements performed on the spare model of PICAM installed in the IWF vacuum chamber.

Necessary knowledge: Basic physics: electromagnetism, notion of plasma physics; Basic programming: scripting and data visualisation

Recommended reading sources:

• Description of the PICAM: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-020-00787-3

• Brochure of the SIMION simulation software: https://simion.com/docs/simion8brochure.pdf

Project: Machine Learning for Characterization of Vortices in Protoplanetary Disks

Supervisor: Dr. Kundan Kadam

Planetary systems, such as our solar system as well as exoplanets, are born in protoplanetary disks that surround young stars. A protoplanetary disk mainly consists of gas and a small amount of dust, however, understanding the evolution of the dust component is crucial, since it forms terrestrial planets and cores of gas giants. The micrometer-sized interstellar dust needs to grow about 13 orders of magnitude in size (1 with 13 zeros) in order to form an Earth-sized planet. However, this process of dust growth in a protoplanetary disk is not fully understood. One of the mechanism of dust growth is accumulation of dust in a pressure maximum, which works as a dust trap, followed by streaming instability that spontaneously forms gravitationally bound clumps. In a recent paper, we showed that the dust can affect the disk viscosity and perturbations in gas can lead to formation of multiple small-scale Rossby vortices. In this project, we will explore the possibility of identifying these vortices with a machine learning (ML) algorithm with pattern recognition. The ML framework would treat identifying vortices as an object detection problem and tackle this problem using a suitable technique, e.g., convolution neural network (CNN), You Only Look Once (YOLO) model. This will enable us to reliably characterize the vortex properties, such as their number and accumulated dust mass, which can give us an insight into the process of planet formation.

Necessary knowledge: Basic Physics and ML, command line basics, programming (preferably Python), plotting (preferably matplotlib), knowledge of Astrophysics/accretion disks is a plus but not required 

Recommended reading sources:

• Regály et al. (2021) "Self-sustaining vortices in protoplanetary discs: Setting the stage for planetary system formation”

Project: Planetary atmospheres through time: evolution driven by atmospheric mass loss

Supervisor: Dr. Daria Kubyhkina

Atmospheric mass loss is a fundamental phenomenon shaping the structure and evolution of planetary atmospheres. It engages processes ranging from global interactions with the host star and large-scale hydrodynamic outflows to essentially microphysical kinetic effects. The early atmospheric evolution of close-in planets hosting hydrogen-dominated atmospheres is thought to be driven by thermal hydrodynamic escape and be one of the major mechanisms shaping the mass-radius and radius-period distribution of low- to intermediate-mass exoplanets known to date. The relative input of atmospheric mass loss (and many factors affecting it) and of primordial atmospheric parameters into the state of the aged planet shows a complicated dependence on the parameters of planets and their host stars, where the latter evolve strongly with time, resulting in a large variety of possible evolution paths of planetary atmospheres.

The project will consist of creating a grid of evolution models for planets on short orbits around G, K, and M stars following different evolution paths, with initial planetary parameters spanning in the realistic range. The successful candidate is expected to perform the modeling with the latest version of the atmospheric evolution code developed in our group (Kubyshkina et al., 2020; Kubyshkina & Fossati 2022) and to carry out a ground analysis of the relative yields from the main factors affecting atmospheric evolution for planets in different regions of parameter space. Given sufficient time, the main stage of the project can be followed by the comparison of the results to a few real (billions-year-old) planets, constraining their possible evolution paths. In case of the successful completion of the project, the student will be part of the peer-reviewed publication based on their results.

Necessary knowledge: suitable for the master's student or last year of bachelor in physics/astronomy or closely related fields, basic knowledge of Python

Recommended reading sources (in descending relevance order):

• Kubyshkina & Fossati 2022 (the idea of the project is based on this study; https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022A%26A...668A.178K/abstract)
• Kubyshkina et al., 2020 (basic description of the atmospheric evolution model; https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020MNRAS.499...77K/abstract)
• Johnstone et al., 2021 (stellar evolution models;  https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021A%26A...649A..96J/abstract)
• Kubyshkina et al., 2018 (atmospheric escape models; https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018A%26A...619A.151K/abstract)

Project: Simulating Effects of MHD Disk Winds on Planetary Migration

Supervisor: Dr. Kundan Kadam

Planetary systems, such as our Solar system as well as exoplanets, are born in protoplanetary disks that surround young stars. A protoplanetary disk consists mainly of gas and a small amount of dust, and is thought to evolve through viscous processes. When a forming planet interacts with the gas in its host disk, the planet migrates inwards and consequently also changes the disk morphology. Planetary migration in the parent disk is an important process during planet formation and it has been studied comprehensively in the literature. However, recent evidence suggests that the turbulent viscosity in the disk is not sufficient to drive observed accretion rates.A growing evidence points towards the phenomenon of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) disk winds, wherein the angular momentum is removed vertically by the winds that emanate from the disk surface. 

The effects of disk winds on planetary migration are not thoroughly investigated. We have a new global model of MHD disk winds (Kadam et al. 2024, in prep) that is capable of evolving a protoplanetary disk over long timescales. In this project, we will conduct hydrodynamic simulations of protoplanetary disks with planets and investigate the consequences of including the MHD winds, focusing on its effects on planetary migration.

Necessary knowledge: Basic Physics, command line basics, programming (preferably Python), plotting (preferably matplotlib), knowledge of Astrophysics/accretion disks is a plus but not required 

Recommended reading sources:

• Benitez-Llambay & Masset (2016), "FARGO3D: A New GPU Oriented MHD Code”
• Baruteau et al. (2013), "Planet-Disc Interactions and Early Evolution of Planetary Systems”,
• Kimmig et al. (2020), "Effect of wind-driven accretion on planetary migration"