About
Welcome to my website! My name is León-Alexander Hühn. I am a Ph.D. student at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (ITA) at the Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University, 18th generation fellow of the IMPRS-HD, and member of the STRUCTURES excellence cluster YRC.
My research interest lies in the theoretical study of protoplanetary disk evolution and planet formation. In the past, I completed my Bachelor and Master thesis at the Max Planck Institue for Astronomy in Heidelberg, studying the resonance chain in the Kepler-223 system and how the accretion of planet-forming disks influences stellar chemical abundances. The work was carried out under the supervision of Prof. Bertram Bitsch.
More recently, I have worked on the impact of early and late-stage infall onto protoplanetary disks. This is part of my Ph.D. research in the group of Prof. Dr. Cornelis Dullemond at ITA. Over the course of my Ph.D., I discovered that the precursor of planet formation, planetesimal formation, can already start during the early Class 0/I evolutionary stages of protoplanetary disks, given the right conditions. I also found that infall during the later Class II stage can substantially shape our understanding of planet formation, ranging from the creation of second-generation disks in the IRAS 04125+2902 binary system to various types of streamers.
IRAS 04125+2902
Simulations show that the protoplanetary disk in IRAS 04125+2902 could be a second-generation disk.
Streamers around a Class II protoplanetary disk
Through a mechanism called ‘Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion’, streamers matching observed structures naturally arise in simulations.