Toon De Prins

Hi, I’m Toon! I’m an astrophysics data scientist and PhD fellow in fundamental research of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO). During my PhD, I am jointly hosted by KU Leuven’s Institute of Astronomy and Macquarie University’s Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre.

My current 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, post-AGB binaries 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 data science techniques, and my research focuses on the following:

• Long-baseline optical interferometry to image and model the inner regions of the circumbinary discs at unrivaled resolution, constraining their structure, morphology, interactions with the central stars and the possibility of embedded giant planets. These unveil a myriad of connections to the physics expected to rule the the inner regions of planet-forming discs around young stars. These observations are interpreted using a host of tools, including an in-group-developed software package to perform intricate neural-network-based image reconstruction, which I am now the maintainer and developer of.

• 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. These processes are expected to mediate accretion physics and stellar evolution in both post-AGB binaries as well as in planet-forming young stars.

While post-AGB binaries are the current focus of my PhD research, my true interests span data science in a broader sense. I am generally involved in the development of powerful data analysis tools and statistical approaches – for both parametric models and non-parametric inversion problems powered by GPU computing – and their application to rich astronomical datasets of different objects, taken by different telescopes and instruments. I this respect, I have co-authored works related to massive Wolf-Rayet stars, habitable-zone exozodiacal dust around main-sequence stars and data analysis of newly commissioned interferometric instruments. If you want to learn more, please have a look at my publications.