Bachelor’s thesis topics of the Extragalactic Astronomy Group on machine learning, instrumental and observational (Wendelstein) projects, stars and planets, galaxies, gravitational lensing and cosmology can be found →here. Please also check out the master’s thesis projects, and let us know which would interest you, because they may in part be split and downgraded to fit into a bachelor’s thesis.

Research in the Computational Astrophysics Group (CAST) ranges from the theoretical investigation of star and planet formation to studies of processes on cosmological scales. A variety of different, well-known numerical codes (such as Ramses, Gadget, Sauron, Gandalf, Mocassin, and others) are used. Primary investigations regard the formation, the structure, and the evolution of protoplanetary disks, the formation of planetary building blocks and planets, the relation between turbulence and phase transitions in the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM), energetic feedback processes, molecular cloud and star formation in galaxies, as well as cosmological structure and galaxy formation and the interplay between feedback processes, AGN, and galaxy evolution and their imprint on the intergalactic medium (IGM) or the intercluster medium (ICM). Thus, our group studies astrophysical processes on length scales covering more than 14 orders of magnitude, from gigaparsec scales of cosmological structures all the way down to sub-AU scales of dust grains within protoplanetary disks.

It is now clear that small-scale processes like the condensation of molecular clouds into stars, magnetic fields and the details of heat transport as well as large-scale processes like gas infall from the cosmic web into galaxies and environment are intimately coupled and have to be investigated in a concerted effort. The various past and ongoing projects within the CAST group cover a link between the various scales and contribute to our understanding of crucial aspects of the formation and evolution of stars and protoplanetary disks, central black holes and AGNs, star-forming regions and the ISM, galaxies and their IGM, galaxy clusters and the ICM as well the large-scale structures in the universe. They also also drive the continuous effort to develop and to apply new numerical methods and the next generation of multi-scale codes within the framework of numerical astrophysics.

Past and ongoing Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis projects were always offered with respect to the individual strengths and interests of the students and cover various areas in the field of computational and theoretical astrophysics:

• Formation of large-scale cosmological structures (dark-matter halos, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, role of black holes, magnetic fields and non-thermal particles)
• Evolution and structure of the turbulent interstellar medium (ISM physics, self-regulating star formation, formation of molecular clouds, magnetic fields)
• Physics of galactic centers (active galactic nuclei, origin and nature of the gas cloud G2 near the Galactic center)
• Formation of planets, stars, and stellar clusters (stars and their influence on the surrounding protoplanetary disc, interstellar matter, radiative transfer, dynamics of particles and planets in protoplanetary disks)
• Application and development of numerical tools on parallel CPUs and GPUs and visualization (particle-based SPH/N-body, grid-based, moving-mesh or meshless methods)

More detailed information on ongoing and finished projects as well as more detailed information on ongoing research can be found on the web pages of the Computational Astrophysics Group.

X-ray and gamma-ray observations have been instrumental in enabling scientists to study some of the most extreme cosmic sources in the Universe. The utilisation of data obtained through X-ray and imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes facilitates the comprehension of physical processes in these extreme environments and the tracing of their evolution. This provides opportunities to study processes at the frontier of known physics. The research undertaken by our group encompasses a broad spectrum of enquiry into astrophysics and fundamental physics, including the investigation of cosmic-ray acceleration processes and the quest to comprehend the nature of Dark Matter.

Those interested in pursuing this field are invited to get in touch.