Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie

Koenigstuhl 17

69117 Heidelberg

Tel: +49 6221 528 321

Email: zsom at mpia dot de

About me:

I’m a PhD student at MPIA working on dust coagulation and fragmentation using a Monte Carlo code with a representative particle approach (see Zsom & Dullemond, 2008, A&A, 489, 931). I’m mainly interested in how the properties of the dust particles (mass, area, porosity, fractal dimension, etc.) change during collisions in the interstellar disk, how it is possible to form planetesimals and how particles move in the gas disk.

I’m a member of Kees Dullemond’s Junior Research Group, and the Forschergruppe FOR 759 (The Formation of Planets: The Critical First Growth Phase). Inside the Forschergruppe, I work in close collaboration with Juergen Blum and his group at Braunschweig.

A collaboration was established with Carsten Dominik and Dominik Paszun at the University of Amsterdam.

Some results and animations are available here. QuickTime required! Some of the animations are big, it might take a while until these are downloaded.

Publications:

Testing the theory of grain growth and fragmentation by millimeter observations of protoplanetary disks : T. Birnstiel, L. Ricci, F. Trotta, C.P. Dullemond, A. Natta, L. Testi, C. Dominik, Th. Henning, C. W. Ormel, A. Zsom, 2010, A&A, 516, 14 (link)

The outcome of protoplanetary dust growth: pebbles boulders or planetesimals? II Introducing the bouncing barrier : A. Zsom, C.W. Ormel, C. Guettler, J. Blum, C.P. Dullemond, 2010, A&A, 513, 57 (link)

The outcome of protoplanetary dust growth: pebbles boulders or planetesimals? I Mapping the zoo of laboratory experiments : C. Guettler, J. Blum, A. Zsom, C. W. Ormel, C.P. Dullemond, 2010 A&A, 513, 56 (link)

Planet formation bursts at the borders of the dead zone in 2D numerical simulations of circumstellar disks : Lyra, W.; Johansen. A.; Zsom, A.; Klahr, H.; Piskunov, N., 2009, A&A 497, 869 (link)

A representative particle approach to coagulation and fragmentation of dust aggregates and fluid droplets : A. Zsom, C.P. Dullemond, 2008, A&A, 489, 931 (link)

Papers in preparation:

The first stages of planet formation in binary systems: How far can dust coagulation proceed? : A. Zsom, Zs. Sandor, C.P. Dullemond, submitted to A&A (link)

Sedimentation driven coagulation within the snowline : A. Zsom, C.W. Ormel, C.P. Dullemond, Th. Henning, in prep.

Selected conference contributions:

A. Zsom, Zs. Sandor, C.P. Dullemond: Motion and accumulation of dust particles (poster for the conference Cosmic Dust Near and Far, 2008, Heidelberg)