EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Coagulation Processes in Astrophysical Systems
Speaker: Roman Rafikov
Speaker Info: Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Brief Description:
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Abstract:

Coagulation is a process of assemblage of many small integral units into bigger entities. This phenomenon is ubiquitous in many physical systems and is used to describe processes of gelation (chemistry), aerosol formation (atmospheric sciences), formation of planets (astrophysics), large scale clustering of matter in the Universe (cosmology), and so on. I will describe several particular manifestations of coagulation in astrophysics and will demonstrate that, in many situations where the mutual gravity of mergingobjects is important, the effect of the so-called gravitational focusing causes coagulation to proceed in a very distinct manner. I will touch upon the analytical apparatus used to describe the process of coagulation, in particular in systems with focusing. Finally, I will describe in some detail the coupling of coagulation and gravitational dynamics emerging in studies of terrestrial planet formation.