Presidential Faculty Fellows Award - Observational Cosmology and Active Star-Forming Galaxies

总统教员奖 - 观测宇宙学和活跃恒星形成星系

• 批准号: 9553020
• 负责人: John Salzer
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Wesleyan University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-11-15 至 2001-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9553020&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Presidential; Faculty; Fellows; Award; Observational

Abstract John J. Salzer Wesleyan University Galaxies that have active nuclei, or regions of intense starburst activity, represent examples of the most energetic phenomena known in the universe. Galaxian activity is very common and occurs on all scales, from the super luminous quasi-stellar objects (QSOs), down to the extremely active star-formation regions in blue compact dwarf galaxies. Much of our knowledge of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and starburst galaxies have come by studying galaxies cataloged in objective-prism surveys which used observations by Schmidt telescopes and data recorded on photographic plates. The opportunity to use more sensitive charge coupled device (CCD) detectors to survey for emission-line galaxies now exists, and initial observations have provided results that have shown great promise to provide better data. The large, deep samples obtained from CCD-based Schmidt surveys will provide exciting new opportunities to study galaxian activity of all types, and should allow us to better understand this activity in the context of galaxy formation and evolution in general. The research will involve carrying out the next generation of objective-prism surveys for emission-line galaxies. The technique to be used combines the benefits of a traditional Qchmidt telescope survey with the advantages of using a CCD detector. It is planned to survey several hundred square degrees of sky to a limiting magnitude of B = 20 - 21 over the next five years. Computer software developed specifically for this program will be used to automatically locate, extract, and classify the spectra in each field, and use pattern matching algorithms to select our sample of emission-line galaxies. An initial pilot project, carried out in the Spring of 1994, has verified that our technique is indeed capable of reaching the desired magnitude. It is conservatively estimated that 20-30 emission-line galaxies will be found per square degree, roughly 200 times the surface density of the galaxies in the Markarian survey. The emission-line galaxy candidates will be observed spectroscopically using a multi-fiber spectrograph to obtain redshifts and line strengths for the full sample. The results obtained from analyzing the data of this deep sample of AGNs and star-forming galaxies will have numerous applications to the study of galaxian activity. These include: global star-formation processes, chemical evolution in galaxies, the value of the primordial helium abundance, luminosity functions and space densities of AGN and actively star-forming galaxies, large-scale structure and observational cosmology.

摘要约翰·J·萨尔泽卫斯理大学的星系具有活跃的核，或具有强烈星暴活动的区域，它们代表了宇宙中已知的最高能量现象的例子。银河活动是非常普遍的，并且发生在所有尺度上，从超明亮的准恒星物体(QSO)，到蓝色致密矮小星系中极其活跃的恒星形成区。我们对活动星系核(AGN)和恒星暴增星系的大部分知识都来自于研究在物镜调查中编目的星系，该调查使用了施密特望远镜的观测和摄影底片上记录的数据。现在有机会使用更灵敏的电荷耦合器件(电荷耦合器件)探测器来探测发射线星系，初步观测提供的结果显示出提供更好数据的巨大希望。从基于电荷耦合器件的施密特观测中获得的大而深的样本将为研究所有类型的银河活动提供令人兴奋的新机会，并应使我们能够更好地在星系形成和演化的背景下理解这一活动。这项研究将涉及对发射线星系进行下一代物镜调查。将使用的技术结合了传统Qchmidt望远镜测量的优点和使用CCD探测器的优点。它计划在未来五年内测量数百平方度的天空，极限震级为B=20-21。专门为这个项目开发的计算机软件将被用来自动定位、提取和分类每个领域的光谱，并使用模式匹配算法来选择我们的发射线星系样本。1994年春进行的初步试验项目证实，我们的技术确实能够达到所需的量级。保守估计，每平方度将发现20-30个发射线星系，大约是马卡里亚调查中星系表面密度的200倍。候选发射线星系将使用多光纤光谱仪进行光谱观测，以获得全样本的红移和谱线强度。通过对活动星系核和恒星形成星系的这一深部样本数据的分析，所获得的结果将在星系活动的研究中有许多应用。其中包括：全球恒星形成过程、星系中的化学演化、原始氦丰度的值、活动星系核和活跃恒星形成星系的光度函数和空间密度、大尺度结构和观测宇宙学。