Image Caption: Illustration of my research related to planet formation, highlighting some of my past work as well. (a) Planet formation starts in a disc of dust and pebbles that form planetesimals, while the disc evolves in time. (b) Planets form by the accretion of planetesimals and pebbles, while they migrate in type-I migration. At the same time inward moving pebbles evaporate and enrich the disc with water. (c) Once the planets become big enough, they accrete gas and migrate in type-II migration, while blocking the large pebbles exterior to their orbits, but allowing small dust to diffusion through. Consequently, the inner system is starved of material. (d) After the gas disc dispersal, dynamical interactions can rearrange the planetary system. Today, we observe the planetary systems as well as the stellar and planetary spectra. The present day stellar abundances are used as input for the planet formation model making the assumption that stellar abundances are a proxy for the original disc abundances that set the planetary abundances.

Prof. Bertram Bitsch is studying the formation of planets in protoplanetary discs that surround young newly formed stars. For his research Prof. Bitsch is using N-body and hydrodynamical codes that allow to study the evolution of protoplanetary disc and thee growth of planets from small Mars sized planets to fully grown gas giants, while simulataneous tracking their composition within these discs (see figure). The results of the simulations are then compared to the observations of protoplanetary discs and of exoplanets in order to understand the formation history of planetary systems. In addition the simulations are used to make predictions for future observations that can test the models.

Feel free to contact if you are interested in doing a Masters by research project!