Fan Liu

Postdoc

Monash University

Biography

My research mainly focuses on detailed spectroscopic analyses of solar-type stars. I developed a technique, namely strictly line-by-line differential analysis, which allows me to achieve extremely high precision in stellar parameters and elemental abundance (0.01 dex; 2%), a five-fold improvement over traditional spectroscopic analyses. With this technique, I am able to reveal subtle chemical abundance variations in carefully selected stars that are similar to each other. My studies examined and demonstrated how the surface chemical compositions of stars can be altered by e.g., planet formation, stellar evolution and atomic diffusion, birth environment and ISM mixing and so on, thus have significant ramifications for the star-planet connection, stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) and Galactic Archaeology. In collaboration with Prof. Amanda Karakas at Monash University, I will conduct research within the Galactic Archaeology and/or First Stars Projects of ASTRO 3D. The research involves comparing observing results with theoretical modelling of stellar and/or chemical evolution, in order to study the origin of elements over cosmic time and aid in the interpretation of Galactic Archaeology measurements from e.g., the Galah project. Understanding the origin of matter and the periodic table of elements is a fundamental outcome for ASTRO 3D.