Collaborative Research: Exploring Galaxy Evolution at High Resolution with Gravitational Lensing and ALMA

这个项目研究大爆炸后最初几十亿年内大质量星系的增长。目标星系通过“引力透镜”被放大，引力透镜是光在中间星系周围的弯曲，这使得它们比类似距离的其他星系更容易被探测到，并得到更详细的研究。主要数据来自阿塔卡马大毫米/亚毫米阵列(ALMA)。有了这些和其他数据，研究小组将确定这些星系如何如此迅速地形成恒星并如此迅速地关闭它们的形成，寻找星系中黑洞增长的证据，确定宇宙中此类星系的数量，看看它们如何影响宇宙恒星形成的整体历史，并通过非常详细地探索它们的透镜来测试现代宇宙学范式。该奖项将通过从这项研究到伊利诺伊州五年级课堂的例子、亚利桑那州高中生的实践射电天文技术经验以及对本科生和研究生进行射电天文和干涉测量高级技术培训来支持天文学教学。该项目将利用南极望远镜发现的引力透镜星系实现以下几个目标：(1)确定高红移宇宙中最强烈恒星形成事件的触发机制；(2)通过观察气体动力学和外流来研究恒星形成的调节和终止；(3)通过确定恒星质量、恒星形成率、这类星系包括：(1)探测极高红移星系中的恒星和气体含量；(4)探索黑洞吸积和恒星质量聚集在这些天体中的共同演化；(5)利用远红外原子谱线测量金属丰度，(6)确定这些极端星暴的空间密度，并将其与最先进的星系形成模拟相联系；以及(7)确定使这些星系透镜状的光晕的亚结构，以检验目前宇宙学模型的预测。根据ALMA周期3和4中已经承诺的数据，利用过去几年建立的先进干涉分析工具，这些目标在很大程度上是可以实现的。该团队吸收了观察者和理论家，以确保从这些早期宇宙的高分辨率图像中获得的经验教训可以与最先进的星系形成模拟进行比较并反馈到最先进的模拟中。

This project studies the growth of massive galaxies in the first few billion years after the Big Bang. The target galaxies are magnified by "gravitational lensing," the bending of light around intervening galaxies, which allows them to be detected more easily and studied in greater detail than other galaxies at similar distance. The primary data come from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). With these and other data, the team will determine how these galaxies form stars so rapidly and shut down their formation so quickly, look for evidence of black hole growth in the galaxies, determine the number of such galaxies in the Universe to see how they affect the overall history of cosmic star formation, and test the modern cosmological paradigm by exploring their lensing in great detail. This award will support the teaching of astronomy through examples from this research to fifth grade classes in Illinois, hands-on radio astronomy technology experiences for high school students in Arizona, and training of undergraduate and graduate students in advanced techniques of radio astronomy and interferometry.The project will pursue several goals using gravitationally lensed galaxies discovered by the South Pole Telescope: (1) determine the triggering mechanisms for the most intense star formation events in the high redshift Universe, (2) study the regulation and termination of star formation by observing gas dynamics and outflows, (3) study the assembly of massive elliptical galaxies by determining stellar masses, star formation rates, and gas content in such galaxies at very high redshift, (4) explore the coevolution of black hole accretion and stellar mass assembly in these objects, (5) measure metal enrichment with far-infrared atomic lines, (6) determine the space density of these extreme starbursts and connect them to state of the art galaxy formation simulations, and (7) identify substructure in the halos lensing these galaxies to test the predictions of current cosmology models. These goals are largely achievable based on the data already promised in ALMA cycles 3 and 4 using the advanced interferometric analysis tools that have been built up over the past several years. The team incorporates both observers and theorists to ensure that the lessons derived from these high-resolution views of the early Universe can be compared against and fed back into state-of-the-art galaxy formation simulations.