CAREER: Observing the Physics of Star Formation in Galaxies

该团队将使用一个新的设施，阿塔卡马大型毫米/亚毫米阵列（阿尔马），观察星系内的冷气体。 该团队将研究恒星如何在冷气体中形成的细节。 这些细节将使星星形成的竞争理论得到有力的检验。 高级团队成员将指导初级成员，包括有残疾的本科生。 PI将邀请来自俄亥俄州的高中生参与以天文学为主题的实践项目。该团队将使用阿尔马无与伦比的角分辨率、波长覆盖范围和灵敏度来研究星系内冷气体的物理条件。 他们的目标是：（1）测量体积密度的变化，以检验气体密度是星星形成的主要驱动力的理论;（2）在一个有代表性的星系样本中，首次系统地测量云尺度的结构、密度、湍流和气体的自重;（3）模拟恒星形成云的生命周期，并限制主要的云破坏机制;以及（4）开发、改进和推广处理复杂数据分析的新方法。

The team will use a new facility, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), to observe the cold gas inside galaxies. The team will study the details of how stars form in the cold gas. These details will enable strong tests of competing theories of star formation. Senior team members will mentor junior members, including undergraduate students who have disabilities. The PI will engage high school students from Ohio in hands-on, astronomy-themed projects.The team will use ALMA's unrivaled angular resolution, wavelength coverage and sensitivity to study the physical conditions in the cold gas inside galaxies. Their goals are to (1) measure the variations in volume densities to test theories that posit gas density as the main driver of star formation; (2) make the first systematic measurements of the cloud-scale structure, density, turbulence, and self-gravity of the gas in a representative sample of galaxies; (3) model the life-cycle of star-forming clouds and constrain the dominant cloud destruction mechanism; and (4) develop, refine, and disseminate new methods to handle the complex data analysis.