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

兰泽塔9624216将开展的研究集中在星系的气体范围和类恒星物体吸收系统的起源上。开展这项研究的基础是哈勃空间望远镜光谱目标类星体领域现有的对微弱星系的成像和光谱测量。这项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，来探测星系的气态范围和莱曼阿尔法谱线吸收系统的起源。25个领域的近2000个微弱物体已经成为低分辨率光学光谱的目标。已经获得了对调查中确定的星系的各种后续观测，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学光谱。计划对调查中确定的星系进行更多的后续观测，包括21厘米射电光谱观测和广域低分辨率光学光谱观测。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。这些观测和测量或多或少地尽可能详细地描述了一个无偏的星系样本的性质，这些星系偶然出现在明亮的背景类星体的视线附近。这使得人们能够获得相应的莱曼阿尔法吸收线的存在或不存在的唯一测量。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，而且从一般暗星系的角度来看也是如此。具体地说，观测和测量将被用来确定星系周围稀薄气体的入射和程度如何取决于星系的光度、质量、形态类型、恒星人口和恒星形成历史以及星系的大尺度环境。我们将推导出Lymanα吸收星系的光度函数。这是一个至关重要的量，它将莱曼阿尔法吸收体的数密度与暗星系的数量计数和红移分布联系在一起。星系和吸收体对也很令人感兴趣，因为它们提供了一个新的、完全独特的星系动力学探测器，远远超出了传统的自转曲线，可以用来确定星系的暗物质含量，达到前所未有的空间尺度和红移。该教育计划的重点是开发一门新的课程和教科书，向非理科专业的学生传授定量推理技能，并开发一项新的项目，让本科生和高中生参与天文研究。目标是利用学生在所有研究领域的自然倾向，对天文主题感兴趣，教授来自应用物理、应用数学和应用统计学领域的具体、有形的技能。这门新课程的题目是《太阳系的影响》，专门针对那些在物理、数学或统计学方面有很少但有一些背景的非理科专业的学生。本课程的目标是对与太阳系撞击有关的各种问题进行简单而严格的定量推理，特别集中于陆地撞击及其对地球生命演化的影响，但也包括对其他太阳系天体的影响。本科生研究计划的目标是让来自所有研究领域的学生，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.