structure of the interstellar medium (ISM)
The interstellar medium filling the space between the stars and around the galaxies reacts in many ways to the presence of stars, especially massive ones. This "stellar feedback" can be small scale, like the small HII region created by the ionizing radiation of a hot star, or the circumstellar bubble around some evolved stars (like planetary nebulae, WR- and LBV-nebulae), or single supernova remnants, up to galaxy scale (like supergiant shells around stellar constellations and galactic outflow and ionized halos of galaxies).
The energy input of stellar winds, SNe, and the ionizing radiation of the stars determines the topology of the ISM, the relative structure and relation of the different temperature phases of the ISM.
We are especially interested in the diffuse warm ionized gas, investigating its structure in the disks and halos of galaxies and its ionization mechanisms. For this we work on innovative observing methods and small instruments for the detection of very faint light levels. The ionized gas is also our preferred tracer for circumstellar bubbles. With these bubbles we use their kinematics and chemical properties to constrain the stellar evolution of the central star and its mass loss.
One large current project is the XMM-Newton X-ray survey of the Magellanic clouds, which we also support with our own survey of the ionized gas in both LMC and SMC (MCSF).
Current members:
Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, Dominik Bomans, Kerstin Weis, Alexander Becker