Collaborative Research: Physics and Applications of Lyman-Alpha Emission of Star-forming Galaxies

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Observations of Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs) provide clues to the formation and evolution of star forming galaxies, and the large-scale structure of the Universe. Zheng and Cen will simulate the Lyman-alpha emission for hundreds of simulated galaxies. This work will establish a theoretical framework for interpreting LAE observations. The team is actively engaged in public outreach. Cen participates in a program at the Rose-Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Zheng will work with the Refugees Exploring the Foundations of Under Graduate Education in Science program at the University of Utah. The program serves under-represented middle and high school students through hands-on science workshops and activities designed to prepare the students for college.Zheng and Cen will employ a high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulation combined with an efficient Monte Carlo Lyman-alpha radiative transfer code to investigate Lyman-alpha emission properties of LAEs and the clustering of LAEs. Observational astronomers will use this theoretical framework to interpret Lyman-alpha emission from circumgalactic and intergalactic media, investigate the role of LAEs during the epoch of reionization, and test the use of LAEs to map large scale structure. The simulated data will also be used to refine LAE detection algorithms, evaluate systematic uncertainties in on-going and future LAE surveys, and provide simulated data to test survey analysis pipelines.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.