This $110,000 federal Project Grant award was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under its Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program. The grant recipient, Adrian Fraser, will use the funding to carry out a 3-year program of research and education at the University of Colorado Boulder. The primary focus of the research is to perform simulations of rotating, magnetized fluids to improve understanding of how rapidly the cores of stars spin over time. This has implications for the explosive deaths of massive stars and the formation of black holes and neutron stars. Additionally, the award supports a peer mentoring system and expansion of mentoring infrastructure on the university campus. The research leverages recent developments in the geophysical sciences to explore the Tayler-Spruit dynamo, which may help explain why stellar cores slow their spin as they contract. The findings from this project are expected to contribute new models for understanding the spins of stellar cores and compact stellar remnants.
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