Assistant professor of physics Kenneth A. Pestka II and Longwood undergraduate physics major Robert Highley (18) presented the poster, written in collaboration with recent Longwood physics graduate Laura Deale, “Finite element models of crystallized white dwarf cores: A gateway to undergraduate physical acoustics and computational modeling of complex systems,” at the 173rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the 8th Forum Acusticum on June 27th, 2017.
The project involved details of several finite element models generated on a computer of white dwarf stars with cores composed of layered crystalline carbon, oxygen and neon, which can be used to understand variations in the luminosity output of these unusual stellar remnants. The abstract is now available at the Acoustical Society of America website, http://asa.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1121/1.4988226 and more information about the project can be found at the Longwood News website, http://www.longwood.edu/news/2017/physics-majors-modeling-white-dwarf-stars/ .
Filed under: Chemistry and Physics, Mathematics & Computer Science