US-France Cooperative Research: Large-Scale Clustering of Dwarf and Low-Brightness Galaxies

该奖项将支持弗吉尼亚大学Trinh Thuan博士与法国巴黎天文台的Rene Pellat博士和Jean-Michel Alimi博士在银河系天文学方面的合作研究。提出的研究的目的是研究矮星系和巨星系的比较分布。研究人员建议研究北半球矮星系和低表面亮度星系的空间分布，使用Thuan博士对乌普萨拉星系总目录中被分类为矮星系、麦哲伦星系和不规则星系的大约1800个星系进行的21厘米红移调查作为数据库。这些数据代表了本质暗淡星系空间分布的重要新信息来源。具体来说，他们将研究矮星系和明亮星系的群集特性。他们还计划计算其他统计数据，比如与给定绝对边缘的明亮星系相关的矮星系的平均数量。这种类型的统计对于理解其他天体物理现象至关重要。这个项目的结果可能会对目前关于星系形成的“偏颇”和宇宙是否包含足够的暗物质而被封闭的问题的想法产生重要影响。该项目将受益于Thuan博士在矮星系方面的专业知识和法国在分析星系群集的统计技术方面的经验。

This award will support collaborative research in galactic astronomy between Dr. Trinh Thuan, University of Virginia and Dr. Rene Pellat and Jean-Michel Alimi of the Paris Observatory, Meudon, France. The objective of the proposed research is a study of the comparative distribution of dwarf and giant galaxies. The investigators propose to study the spatial distribution of dwarf and low-surface brightness galaxies in the northern hemisphere, using as the data base a 21 cm redshift survey developed by Dr. Thuan of approximately 1800 galaxies classified as dwarf, magellenic and irregular in the Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies. These data represent an important new source of information on the spatial distribution of intrinsically faint galaxies. Specifically, they will examine the clustering properties of dwarf galaxies, compared to those of bright galaxies. They also plan to compute other statistics, such as the mean number of dwarf galaxies associated with a bright galaxy of a given absolute margin. This type of statistic is of prime importance for the understanding of other astrophysical phenomena. The results of this project may have an important influence on present ideas on the "biassing" of galaxy formation and the question of whether the Universe contain enough dark matter to be closed. The project will benefit from the combined expertise of Dr. Thuan in dwarf galaxies and the French experience in statistical techniques to analyze galaxy clustering.