My research has stemmed from a central theme of trying to understand the hydrodynamical evolution of self-gravitating, astrophysical systems, particularly when the geometry of such flows demand a fully three-dimensional representation. As is more fully documented in the accompanying pages that summarize my publication record, I have studied in detail problems that relate to star formation, gas-dynamical flows in galaxies, and compact stellar objects (such as white dwarfs and neutron stars). If you are interested in gaining a better understanding of the mathematical tools and the physical concepts that underpin research efforts of this nature, I encourage you to browse through the on-line, graduate-level textbook entitled, "The Stucture, Stability, and Dynamics of Self-Gravitating Systems," that I have been developing since the mid-1990s.
As I have pursued these various research projects over the years, I have had the opportunity to work closely with a number of exceptional students. (See the accompanying page for details.) In particular, I am proud to have had the opportunity to mentor the Ph.D. research projects of Harold Williams [1988], Dimitris Christodoulou [1989], John Woodward [1992], Kimberly New [1996], Saied Andalib [1998], Paul Fisher [1999], Howard Cohl [1999], John Cazes [1999], Eric Barnes [2001], Patrick Motl [2001], and Shangli Ou [2004].
In order to be able to understand in a quantitatively reliable way how stars, molecular clouds, and galaxies behave during key dynamical phases of their evolution, my students and I have invested a great deal of time developing nontrivial computational algorithms to simulate fully three-dimensional, self-gravitating, compressible fluid flows and to visualize the results of these flows, which often can be quite complex. Details regarding the mpi-based parallel algorithm that we presently use to simulate astrophysical fluid flows can be found in Motl, Tohline, and Frank (2000); on-line documentation describing the heterogeneous computing environment that we have developed to couple these simulations to visualization tools can be found in Cazes, Tohline, Cohl, and Motl (1999); and an assortment of Quicktime movies that we have produced to illustrate the results of a variety of our dynamical simulations can be found via the accompanying movie pages.
My research activities in these areas would not have been possible without the ongoing support of several key funding agencies; most notably, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Louisiana Educational Quality Support Fund (LEQSF). A record of this funding is given below.
Funding History:
Dates | Agency | Award No. | Total Award | Principal Investigator |
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Federal | State | |||||
12/09 | 11/12 | NASA | (ATP) NNX10AC72G | $460,000 | --- | Clayton (LSU, Astronomy) |
09/08 | 08/11 | NSF | PHY-0803629 | $300,000 | --- | Tohline (formerly Lehner) |
08/09 | 07/12 | NSF | OCI-0926701 | $495,514 | --- | Tohline (formerly Kosar) |
08/10 | 07/12 | NSF | EPS-1006891 | $1,176,470 | --- | Khonsari (La BOR) |
07/10 | 12/12 | NSF | OIA-0963375 | $1,998,000 | --- | Simmons (LSU, ITS) |
07/05 | 06/11 | NSF-IGERT | DGE-0504507 | $2,919,909 | --- | Nikitopoulos (LSU, Mechanical Eng.) |
Active subTOTAL: | $7,349,893 | --- | ||||
08/07 | 07/10 | NSF | AST-0708551 | $370,720 | --- | Tohline |
02/07 | 01/10 | NASA | (ATP) NNX07AG84G | $327,907 | --- | Frank (LSU, Astronomy) |
09/08 | 08/09 | NSF | CCF-0833193 | $70,000 | --- | Sterling (LSU, Comp. Sci.) |
09/07 | 08/08 | NSF-PIF | PHY-0653369 | $80,000 | --- | Lehner (LSU, Physics) |
06/04 | 05/08 | NSF | AST-0407070 | $332,074 | --- | Tohline |
09/03 | 08/07 | NSF-ITR | PHY-0326311 | $1,177,681 | --- | Lehner (LSU, Physics) |
05/03 | 04/06 | NASA | (ATP) NAG5-13430 | $310,000 | --- | Pullin (LSU, Physics) |
06/00 | 05/04 | NSF | AST-9987344 | $173,000 | $15,000 | Tohline |
05/99 | 04/03 | NASA | (ATP) NAG5-8497 | $176,520 | --- | Frank (LSU, Astronomy) |
06/96 | 12/98 | LEQSF | (96-98)ENG-TR19 | --- | $115,000 | Guzik (LSU, Physics) |
06/96 | 05/99 | NSF | AST-9528424 | $174,000 | --- | Tohline |
06/95 | 12/98 | LEQSF | (95-98) 115-35-4112 | --- | $94,075 | Sun (LSU, Comp. Sci.) |
09/94 | 08/99 | NSF | GER-9355007 | $537,500 | --- | Kalia (LSU, Physics) |
08/93 | 01/97 | DOE | (AGTSR) 93-01-SR015 | $478,250 | --- | Acharya (LSU, Mech. Eng.) |
07/94 | 08/96 | NASA | (ATP) NAG5-2777 | $58,300 | --- | Frank (LSU, Astronomy) |
06/93 | 06/95 | LEQSF | (93-94)ENH-TR05 | --- | $850,000 | Kalia (LSU, Physics) |
03/91 | 07/95 | NASA | (ATP) NAGW-2447 | $565,850 | --- | Frank (LSU, Astronomy) |
03/91 | 08/94 | NSF | AST-9008166 | $177,000 | --- | Tohline |
06/90 | 06/93 | LEQSF | (90-92)ENH-12 | --- | $890,000 | Tohline |
07/87 | 12/90 | NSF | AST-8701503 | $170,000 | --- | Tohline |
06/85 | 11/87 | NSF | AST-8501842 | $71,000 | --- | Tohline |
11/83 | 10/84 | NSF | AST-8314476 | $6,000 | --- | Chanmugam (LSU, Astronomy) |
06/83 | 11/85 | NSF | AST-8217744 | $59,200 | --- | Tohline |
06/83 | 08/83 | LSU Research Council | --- | --- | $3,750 | Tohline |
Retired subTOTAL: | $5,315,002 | $1,967,825 | ||||
TOTAL: | $12,664,895 | $1,967,825 | = $14,632,720 |