molecular clouds

Stars form during the collapse of dense molecular cloud cores. However, most of their final mass comes from the ensuing protostellar disk, owing to non-zero angular momentum in the cloud. Here, the protostar gains up to 50% of its final mass in episodic bursts of mass accretion, while having quiescent phases between the bursts. In this presentation I present a study of how the occurrence of such bursts may be inferred using asteroseismology - the study of stellar pulsations. Specifically, I show how these intense episodes leave a detectable asteroseismic imprint in the deep stellar interior.