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

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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.