RUI: SHIELD: The Survey of HI in Extremely Low-mass Dwarf Galaxies

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Galaxies harbor an astounding range of physical properties, one of the most fundamental of which is the total mass (made up of gas, dust, stars, and the mysterious dark matter). Many important physical properties change as one considers galaxies across the known range of masses. In this Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) program, the investigator and students will use data from the NSF’s Karl Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study the gaseous component of the most extremely low-mass galaxies. These 3-dimensional data products simultaneously inform upon the amount, the location, and the motion of the gas in these systems. The team will compare these VLA data with a comprehensive suite of supporting data to reveal the physical properties of these faint galaxies. Undergraduate students will play critical roles in all aspects of this program. This RUI program will investigate the physical properties of low-mass galaxies, and it supports the “Survey of HI in Extremely Low-mass Dwarfs” (“SHIELD”). SHIELD is a holistic investigation of the low-mass dwarf galaxy population discovered by the ALFALFA blind HI extragalactic survey. As the most numerous types of galaxies at all redshifts, low-mass systems are critical for understanding star formation, chemical evolution, fundamental scaling relations, and galaxy evolution. Working with undergraduate students at Macalester College, the P.I. will undertake a detailed study of the HI gas in the 82 SHIELD galaxies and in similar systems. Using the rich multi-wavelength SHIELD data suite, this program will enable detailed exploration of the rotational dynamics and the star formation properties of low-mass galaxies. Multiple fundamental galaxy scaling relations will be extended into the sparsely populated parameter spaces that the SHIELD galaxies occupy.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.