Dinshaw Balsara

Associate Professor,
Astrophysics

Research Interests

Astronomy continues to be a data-rich and data-driven field. New ground and space-based telescopes like LBT, Sloan, VLT, SOFIA, SIRTIF, SMA, ALMA, Herschel, HST, Chandra, XTE and NGST are in the planning or are producing excellent, new and highly detailed results in the field. Interpretation of this data requires an ability to theoretically and computationally model the phenomena that are observed. Balsara has been focused on large-scale Adaptive Mesh MHD modeling of such astrophysical phenomena.

We have, therefore, sought out applications in a range of astrophysical areas. Star formation in turbulent molecular clouds is probably one of the most important astrophysical areas in which we have applied these capabilities with rich dividends. We have shown that protostellar disk formation and evolution as well as the emergence of outflows is strongly mediated by the magnetic field. This study is driven by the infrared data from (and anticipated to emerge from) SOFIA, SIRTIF, SMA and ALMA as well as the fact that star formation is a key project for LBT. Another area of recent interest is the study of supernova remnants, driven by the recent CHANDRA observations and also other data. The turbulence of the ISM and the disk-halo connection is another interest of ours. The action and evolution of magnetic fields through fast dynamo processes has also been a point of focus where we have shown new and innovative strategies for rapid field evolution. Applications to extragalactic environments like AGNs and starbursts has also been an area of interest. Recent efforts also include studying white-dwarf and neutron star accretion processes. Inclusion of better gravitational treatment will also enable tests of the leading models for gamma ray bursts.

Selected Publications

“The Formation of Large-Scale Structures in Compressible MHD Flows,” D. Balsara and A. Pouquet, 1999, Phys of Plasmas, Vol. 6, 89.

“Divergence-Free Adaptive Mesh Refinement for Magnetohydrodynamics,” D. Balsara, 2001, to appear, J. Comput. Phys., Vol. 174(2), pp. 614-648 (2001).

“The Evolution of Adiabatic Supernova Remnants in a Turbulent Magnetized Medium,” D. Balsara, R. Benjamin and D. Cox, 2001, Astrophys. J., Vol. 563, 800-805 (2001).

“An MHD Model for the Interstellar Medium and a New Method of Accretion onto Dense Star-Forming Cores,” D. Balsara, D. Ward-Thompson, and R.M. Crutcher, 2001, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 327, 715-720 (2001).

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