Toon De Prins

Hi, I’m Toon De Prins. Welcome to my website! I’m a PhD fellow in fundamental research of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO), performing analysis of astrophysical observations in the research groups of Prof. Dr. Hans Van Winckel at KU Leuven’s Institute of Astronomy and Prof. Devika Kamath at Macquarie University’s Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre.

My research focuses on observations of post-AGB stars. Stripped of their exterior in the preceding evolutionary phase, these stars now rapidly contract and approach the final stages of their life. If orbited by an unevolved companion star, we call these stellar systems post-AGB binaries. In many binaries, the ejected star material has been shepherded into gigantic circumbinary discs of dust and gas, similar to the planet-forming environment around very young stars. Aside from tracing previous stages of stellar evolution, especially binary post-AGBs show a variety of ongoing inter-component interactions, including disc-binary interactions, jet formation and possible planet-disc interactions. These shape the final fate of these stars and their possible planetary nebulae, and hint at the possibility of second-generation exoplanet formation in their dusty discs.

Studying this extensive scientific scope requires a wide range of observational and analysis techniques, and my research focuses on the following:

• Long baseline optical interferometry to image the inner regions of the circumbinary discs at unrivaled resolution, constraining their structure, morphology, interactions with the central stars and the possibility embedded giant planets. These observations are interpreted using a host of tools, including in-group-developed software packages to perform intricate neural network image reconstruction and fitting of radiative transfer models.

• High resolution spectral time-series to facilitate the detection and characterisation of fast and collimated jet-like outflows, simultaneously constraining the binary interactions in these systems, as well as the theory of magnetohydrodynamic jet formation.

In general, my research interest span from data analysis on unique datasets to the development of software tools to extract as much information as possible from rich astronomical observations. Currently, I focus on long baseline interferometry of post-AGB circumbinary discs, specifically the reconstruction of images and fitting of radiative transfer models, in order to constrain their morphology, inter-component interactions and the possibility of embedded giant planets.