The Co-evolution of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light

最亮星团星系与星团内光的共同演化

• 批准号: 1108957
• 负责人: Anthony Gonzalez
• 金额: $ 31.99万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1108957&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Co; evolution; Brightest; Cluster; Galaxies

Clusters of galaxies are important probes of cosmology and are key players in unraveling the mysteries behind galaxy formation and evolution and the development of large scale structure in the Universe. This project aims to investigate the co-evolution of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and intracluster light (ICL) over the past 8 billion years. The study's objectives for understanding galaxy formation are to understand the physical origin of ICL and to quantify the size and stellar mass growth of BCGs. The objectives driven by cosmological considerations are to quantify the fraction of stellar baryons in the BCG plus ICL as a function of cluster mass and redshift and the cluster-to-cluster variation in this stellar baryon fraction and to conduct the definitive census of total (gas plus stellar) baryon fraction as a function of cluster mass.Previous studies have had data limitations requiring several crude approximations, such as assuming a constant mass-to-light ratio for all cluster galaxies and using background subtraction rather than spectroscopic cluster membership to determine the total cluster galaxy luminosity. Previous work has also lacked the combination of gas and stellar baryon data for individual clusters. The proposed work will serve as a definitive survey that includes deep spectroscopy, X-ray data, and deep photometry for the galaxy population and ICL for a statistical sample of clusters, thereby replacing the earlier crude approximations with actual measurements governed by statistics---broadly important to the scientific community.Educationally, the proposed activities will promote teaching and training of a graduate student and a postdoctoral associate. The principal investigator will continue to co-lead an outreach program with local high schools, including a workshop for roughly 30 high school students that targets underserved communities.

星系群是宇宙学的重要探针，是揭开星系形成和进化背后的奥秘以及宇宙中大型结构的发展的关键参与者。 该项目旨在研究过去80亿年的最亮星系星（BCG）和簇内光（ICL）的共同进化。 该研究的理解星系形成的目标是了解ICL的物理起源，并量化BCG的大小和恒星质量生长。 宇宙学考虑驱动的目标是量化BCG和ICL中恒星baryons的比例，这是群集质量和红移的函数，以及在此恒星baryon部分中的群集到群集变化的变化，并进行了总数（Gas Plus Plus Stellar）的确定性限制量的确定性限制。对于所有集群星系，使用背景减法而不是光谱群集成员身份来确定总簇星系光度的恒定质量比率。 先前的工作还缺乏用于单个簇的气体和恒星重子数据的组合。 拟议的工作将作为一项确定的调查，包括深度光谱，X射线数据以及用于银河系人群和ICL的深度光度法，用于统计群集样本，从而代替了早期的原始近似值，其实际测量值是由统计学的实际度量 - 由科学社区而言广泛重要，对科学社区很重要，建议的活动将宣传和培训一名学生和培训。 首席调查员将继续与当地高中共同领导一项外展计划，其中包括针对服务不足社区的大约30名高中生的研讨会。