PODCAST is funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant and led by Guillaume Laibe. The aim of the project is to tackle one of the most fascinating and challenging question of Modern Astrophysics is: How do planets form? Indeed, micronic dust grains must grow over 30 orders of magnitude in mass to build planet cores.
Global numerical simulations of dust grains that couple the dynamics of the particles to their growth/fragmentation and the radiation in the disc are compulsory to understand this process. Yet, this coupling has never been realised, given tremendous difficulties that originate from fundamental physical properties of dusty flows. The evolution of the dust distribution in protoplanetary discs remains therefore very poorly understood.
Our novel groundbreaking code is the first to handle non-ideal MHD, radiation and dust with dynamical growth and fragmentation. We can therefore overcome all past difficulties to model gas-grains mixtures in discs consistently. PODCAST is designed to study the different stages of gas and dust evolution in the various regions of the disc, with the main objective of combining these steps in a holistic model for planet formation. We will confront the results directly with observations, unleashing the full potential of the grand instruments ALMA, SPHERE, JWST and SKA.
ARThUs (Advances in the Research on Theories of the dark Universe) is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant and led by Thomas Buchert. The project focuses on two main fronts:
studies of the effect of inhomogeneities in relativistic cosmology on average properties of cosmological models. We ask the question whether these inhomogeneity effects, being quantitatively important, could even resolve the Dark Energy and Dark Matter problems of the standard model of cosmology.
robust morphological analysis of galaxy catalogues and Cosmic Microwave Background data using integral-geometrical tools (Minkowski Functionals), and topological tools (Homology).
DISKBUILD is funded by an ANR and led by Benoît Commerçon in CRAL. The PI of the project is Sébastien Charnoz at IPGP in Paris.
The aim os DISKBUILD is to characterize planet formation in accreting star-disk systems. Planets form in a protoplanetary disks (PPD) around a protostar. There are growing evidences from meteoritic records inside the Solar System, and observational evidence from ALMA observations that planet accretion processes started during the cloud infall during 100Kyrs to, possibly a few Myr. However most planet formation studies assume accretion in an isolated disk. Meteoritic records of Solar System material find growing evidence for injection of interstellar material in the Solar Nebula, as well as separations of isotopic anomalies reservoir that cannot be explained with the classical paradigm of an isolated disk. Our aim is to investigate the material inflow onto an assembling PPD and how this modifies the dust transport, planetesimal formation and planet migration using a combination of state-of-the-art 3D MHD multi-scale models, 1D dust growth, planetesimals formation and transport models and models of planet migration. The DISKBUILD project gathers 3 teams from different communities (star formation, planet formation, cosmochemistry) to investigate s (1) the structure of the gas/dust flux on the newly formed disk (2) its thermal structure (3) the injection and diffusion of dust in the disk (4) how dust and gas is transported and when and where planetesimals form and (5) how planets migrate in a non isolated disk. This will provide a new framework for planet formation and our results will be confronted to meteoritic records in priority and also to observations of young disk in planet forming regions. It will bridge the gap between planets and the interstellar medium to offer new perspective to interpret meteoritic data and to understand how the first solids of the Solar System form.
PROMETHEE is funded by an ANR.
The well-known angular momentum and magnetic flux problems have been intensely studied for two of the three main phases of star formation: the core-collapse (CC) phase in molecular clouds, and the pre-main-sequence phase (PMS). To be able to extract enough, but not too much, magnetic flux and angular momentum it requires the interplay of several processes: turbulence, radiation, rotation and magnetic field. Fundamental questions are however still open. In particular the intermediate embedded protostellar phase has been poorly studied, and models of magnetic embedded protostars are remarkably absent.
The protostellar phase is fundamental in defining the future of a stellar system. During this phase, the star grows and accretes most of its mass, powerful jets and outflows are launched, dynamo processes start to generate magnetic fields, a large majority of its angular momentum is extracted, the star gets rid of its natal envelope, and the protoplanetary disk forms and starts building planet embryos.
How a newly formed magnetic protostar evolves for about 1 Myr before revealing itself out of her dusty cocoon, and how its magnetic field is involved in the long-standing problem of accretion/ejection in protostars, are currently open question. PROMETHEE will address these problems by measuring for the first time the magnetic and magnetospheric properties of protostars, and by building a theoretically and observationally consistent MHD model of a young magnetic protostar.
PROMETHEE is a CNRS joint project of the Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG, PI Alecian, CoI Dougados), the Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL, CoI Commerçon) and the Laboratoire d’Etudes du Rayonnement de la Matière en Astrophysique et Atmosphères (LERMA, CoI Petitdemange). It is funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) for the 2023-2026 period.
The SPACE Center of Excellence is funded by EuroHPC over the period 2023-2026. The project is led by the University of Turin (PI Mignone) and at CRAL by Benoit Commerçon (CoI).
In Astrophysics and Cosmology (A&C) today, High Performance Computing (HPC)-based numerical simulations are outstanding instruments for scientific discovery. They represent essential tools and theoretical laboratories able to investigate, interpret and understand the physical processes behind the observed sky. For these laboratories, the efficient and effective exploitation of exascale computing capabilities is essential.
Exascale systems, however, are expected to have a heterogeneous unprecedented architectural complexity, with a significant impact on simulation codes. Therefore, SPACE CoE aims to extensively re-engineer the target codes to engage with new computational solutions and adopt innovative programming paradigms, software solutions, and libraries. SPACE aims to foster the reuse and sharing of algorithms and software components in the A&C application domain, addressing this action through co-design activities that bring together scientists, code developers, HPC experts, HW manufacturers and SW developers, advancing lighthouse exascale A&C applications, codes, services and know-how promoting the use of upcoming exascale and post-exascale computing capabilities.
In addition, SPACE will address the high-performance data analysis of the data torrent produced by exascale A&C simulation applications, also with machine-learning and visualization tools. The deployment of applications running on different platforms will be facilitated by federating capabilities focusing on code repositories and data sharing, and integrating European astrophysical communities around exascale computing by adopting software and data standards and interoperability protocols.
DUSTBUSTERS is funded by an ERC RISE project and led by Guillaume Laibe in CRAL. DUSTBUSTERS fosters interactions of researchers in CRAL with institutes spread all over the world.
studies of the effect of inhomogeneities in relativistic cosmology on average properties of cosmological models. We ask the question whether these inhomogeneity effects, being quantitatively important, could even resolve the Dark Energy and Dark Matter problems of the standard model of cosmology.