Early evolution of protostellar discs

Star and planet formation are intimately entwined, and it is difficult to consider one without its implications for the other. Here I will discuss the initial results of my simulations of the formation of a protostellar disc and its associated chemical and physical evolution to investigate the implications this has for the earliest stages of planet formation. Meteoritic evidence (such as high temperature inclusions) suggests certain temperature and density processing histories throughout the Sun's protostellar disc, however such environments are not typically found in observations or simulations of other discs. I use the magneto-hydrodynamic adaptive mesh refinement code FLASH to simulate the collapse of a cloud into a star and disc, and follow the path of gas throughout the disc using tracer particles to probe the disc environment. The information from the tracer particles can then be compared with what is observed and found in meteoritic data to understand the links between the earliest stages of star and planet formation.