9357386 Adams The PI plans to investigate two areas of astrophysics. The main focus of his work will be the theory of star formation. In the past, he has studied the growth of spiral gravitational instabilities in protostellar disks. These instabilities can lead to multiple stars in some cases and perhaps the formation of planets. The present goal is to understand binary star formation and predict the mass function of forming stars. Wave excitation and propagation in molecular clouds will be investigated to clarify the conditions in which stars form. The second area of investigation is cosmology. The PI plans to construct new models of the inflationary universe and the background radiation fields. ***
