Collaborative Research: The Heavy Metal Survey: Stellar Metallicities and Chemical Abundance Patterns of Massive Galaxies out to z~2.3

随着星系的成长和老化，它们的化学成分会随着自身恒星的形成以及它们可能与其他星系合并的历史而发生变化。在遥远的距离上，以前的研究只测量了活跃形成恒星的星系的化学成分。这个项目将利用凯克望远镜上的新仪器来测量静止星系的化学成分，在这些仪器可以到达的距离内，静止星系比形成恒星的星系更常见。这些数据将被用来提供关于遥远的静止星系历史的信息。该项目将使用凯克上的MOSFIRE和LRIS光谱仪，对红移范围为1.3-2.3的20个静止星系的金属丰度进行调查。他们在凯克岛上安排了16.5个晚上进行这项调查。在完成光谱分析后，研究小组将利用调查数据中的化学丰度模式、结构参数和恒星丰度模式，在宇宙时间尺度上约束静止星系的组装历史和恒星形成历史。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As galaxies grow and age, their chemical composition changes as a result of their own star formation as well as the history of any mergers that they may have had with other galaxies. At large distances, previous studies only measured the chemical composition of galaxies that were actively forming stars. This project will take advantage of new instruments available on the Keck telescope to measure the chemical composition of quiescent galaxies, which are more common than star-forming galaxies out to the distances accessible by these instruments. This data will then be used to provide information about the histories of distant quiescent galaxies.The project will use the MOSFIRE and LRIS spectrographs on Keck to obtain a survey of the metallicities of 20 quiescent galaxies in a redshift range of 1.3-2.3. They have 16.5 nights scheduled on Keck for this survey. Upon completion of the analysis of the spectra, the team will use the chemical abundance patterns, structural parameters, and stellar abundance patterns from the survey data to constrain assembly histories and star formation histories of quiescent galaxies over cosmological timescales.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.