Gen Chiaki

Postdoctoral Researcher (JSPS postdoc)

Ph.D. in Physics, University of Tokyo (2016)


My research interest is chemical evolution and star formation in the early Universe. It is the important question in astrophysics how metals and dust grains are dispersed in the interstellar medium because their distribution affects cosmic structure formation through the modification of stellar initial mass function. Also, since metal and dust are the materials of our planet Earth and life, how chemical evolution proceeds is the fundamental question to know their origin. I am now mainly working on the formation of metal-poor stars observed in the outskirt of our Galaxy and neighboring dwarf galaxies. These stars hold fossil records of the nucleosynthesis and chemical enrichment in the early Universe. I have so far investigated a formation process from the first-generation metal-free stars to the second-generation metal-poor stars. By performing analytic calculations and large-scale numerical simulations, I have disclosed the origin of extremely metal-poor stars and the main metal enrichment process from first supernovae, making use of my knowledge of interstellar astrophysics, dust physics, and star formation theory.

Recent Publications
(Publication list from ADS and arXiv)