The Gaseous Extent of Galaxies and the Origin of Quasi- Stellar Object Lyman-Alpha Absorption Line Systems

将要进行的研究集中在星系的气体范围和准恒星物体（QSO）吸收系统的起源上。开展研究的基础是哈勃空间望远镜光谱目标qso领域中已有的对微弱星系的成像和光谱调查。该调查的目的是通过直接比较星系和吸收体沿共同视线的红移来探测星系的气体范围和莱曼α谱线吸收系统的起源。低分辨率光谱学已经瞄准了25个领域的近2000个微弱物体。在调查中发现的星系的各种后续观测已经获得，包括宽带光学和红外成像，宽带，高分辨率光学成像和高分辨率光谱学。计划对调查中确定的星系进行后续观测，包括21厘米射电光谱观测和宽视场低分辨率光谱学。现有的和计划中的观测将构成一个极其丰富的数据集，旨在为星系和吸收系统之间关系的许多不同方面提供新的见解。观测和测量尽可能详细地描述了偶然出现在明亮背景量子黑洞视线附近的无偏星系样本的特性。这使得人们可以获得相应莱曼α吸收线存在或不存在的独特测量。这些观测和测量的潜在应用是巨大的，不仅从星系和吸收体之间的关系的角度来看，而且从一般暗淡星系的角度来看。具体来说，观测和测量将用于确定星系周围稀薄气体的发生率和范围如何取决于星系的光度、质量、形态类型、恒星种群和恒星形成历史以及大尺度环境。导出了莱曼α吸收星系的光度函数。这是将莱曼α吸收体的数量密度与暗星系的数量和红移分布联系起来的关键数量。星系和吸收体对也很有趣，因为它们提供了一种新的、完全独特的星系动态探测，远远超出了传统的旋转曲线，可以应用于确定星系的暗物质含量，达到前所未有的空间尺度和红移。教育计划的重点是开发新的课程和教科书，向非科学专业的学生教授定量推理技能，并开发新的课程，让本科生和高中生参与天文研究。目标是利用所有研究领域的学生对天文学主题感兴趣的自然倾向，教授应用物理、应用数学和应用统计学领域的具体、有形技能。这门新课程名为“太阳系的影响”，专门针对那些在物理、数学或统计学方面只有很少但有一些背景的非科学专业的学生。本课程的目标是将简单而严谨的定量推理应用于与太阳系撞击有关的各种问题，尤其集中于地球撞击及其对地球生命进化的影响，但也涵盖对太阳系其他物体的撞击。本科研究项目的目标是让来自各个研究领域的学生，特别是那些不会成为专业研究人员的学生，从进行研究的经验中受益。

Lanzetta 9624216 The research to be carried out focuses on the gaseous extent of galaxies and the origin of Quasi-Stellar Object (QSO) absorption systems. The foundation for carrying out the research is an existing imaging and spectroscopic survey of faint galaxies in the fields of the Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopic target QSOs. The goal of the survey is to probe the gaseous extent of galaxies and the origin of Lyman alpha spectral line absorption systems by directly comparing redshifts of galaxies and absorbers along common lines of sight. Nearly 2000 faint objects in 25 fields have already been targeted with low-resolution optical spectroscopy. A wide variety of follow-up observations of galaxies identified in the survey have already been obtained, including broad-band optical and infrared imaging, broad-band, high-resolution optical imaging, and high-resolution optical spectroscopy. Additional follow-up observations of galaxies identified in the survey are planned, including 21 cm radio spectroscopy observations and wide-field, low-resolution optical spectroscopy. The existing and planned observations will constitute an enormously rich data set that was designed for the purpose of providing new insights into many different aspects of the relationship between galaxies and absorption systems. The observations and measurements characterize, in more or less as much detail as is possible, the properties of an unbiased sample of galaxies that by chance occur near lines of sight to bright background QSOs. This allows one to obtain unique measurements of the presence or absence of corresponding Lyman alpha absorption lines. The potential application of these observations and measurements is enormous, not only from the perspective of the relationship between galaxies and absorbers, but also from the perspective of faint galaxies generally. Specifically, the observations and measurements will be used to determine how the incidence and extent of tenuous gas around galaxies depends on the luminosity, mass, morphological type, stellar population and star formation history, and large-scale environment of the galaxies. The luminosity function of Lyman alpha absorbing galaxies will be derived. This is a crucial quantity that links the number density of Lyman alpha absorbers with the number counts and redshift distribution of faint galaxies. Galaxy and absorber pairs are also of interest because they provide a new and utterly unique dynamical probe of galaxies that extends far beyond conventional rotation curves and can be applied to determine the dark matter content of galaxies to unprecedented spatial scales and redshifts. The education plan focuses on the development of a new course and textbook to teach quantitative reasoning skills to non-science majors and the development of a new program to involve undergraduate students and high school students in astronomical research. The goal is to exploit the natural tendency of students in all areas of study to take an interest in astronomical topics to teach concrete, tangible skills drawn from the areas of applied physics, applied mathematics, and applied statistics. The new course is entitled "Impacts in the Solar System" and is specifically aimed at non-science majors who have had minimal but some background in physics, mathematics, or statistics. The objective of the course is to apply simple yet rigorous quantitative reasoning to a variety of problems related to impacts in the solar system, concentrating especially on terrestrial impacts and their consequences for evolution of life on Earth, but also covering impacts on other solar system objects. The objective of the program of undergraduate research is to allow students from all areas of study particularly those who will not become professional researchers to benefit from the experience of conducting research.