Studies of the Cosmological Star and AGN Formation Histories

利用James Clerk Maxwell望远镜上革命性的亚毫米共用测辐射热计阵列(Scuba)相机进行的AST-0407374 Cowie亚毫米观测揭示了一群被尘埃遮挡的高红移超发光星系的存在，这些星系构成了宇宙远红外背景的相当大一部分。要全面确定宇宙历史的许多方面，需要全面了解这个尘埃笼罩的星系群，尽管已经取得了巨大的进展，但仍有许多不确定的领域。一个困难出现在没有已知射电或X射线对应物的星系中，因为它们在天空中的位置只是鲜为人知，所以无法测量它们的距离(红移)。新的亚毫米阵列望远镜将能够提供准确的位置，从而解决这个问题。此外，关于微弱光源的信息匮乏，将通过在天空区域进行深度亚毫米观测来解决，该区域同时拥有其他各种波长区域的当前和计划数据。这项研究是理解恒星形成和宇宙活动星系核历史的基础，并将形成一名研究生的论文，他将在这个新兴领域受到良好的培训。

AST-0407374CowieSub-millimeter observations with the revolutionary SCUBA (Sub-millimeter Common-User Bolometer Array) camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope revealed the existence of a population of dust-obscured ultra-luminous galaxies at high redshifts that constitutes a substantial fraction of the cosmic far-infrared background. A full determination of many aspects of the history of the universe requires a comprehensive understanding of this dust-enshrouded galaxy population, and although enormous progress has been made, there are still many areas of uncertainty. One difficulty arises with galaxies with no known radio or X-ray counterpart, whose distance (redshift) cannot be measured because their location on the sky is only poorly known. The new Sub-millimeter Array telescope will be able to provide accurate positions and thus to fix this problem. In addition, the paucity of information about faint sources will be addressed with deep sub-millimeter observations in a region of the sky that has both current and planned data in various other wavelength regions. This research is fundamental to understanding the star formation and active galactic nucleus histories of the Universe, and will form the thesis of a graduate student, who will be well trained in this burgeoning field.