Understanding the Baryon Cycle in Dwarf Galaxies

宇宙中的大多数星系都比银河系小得多，被称为矮星系。矮星系的引力势较浅，使它们能够将恒星核合成的产物传播得很远很广。该计划将研究矮星系周围的气体如何与星系内的恒星相连。研究人员和她的团队将推断矮星系如何获得气体，将气体加工成恒星，并最终将气体和金属释放到宇宙中。该计划还将支持亚利桑那州监狱囚犯的天文学课程。研究人员将为参与监狱教育项目的研究生举办循证教学技术讲习班，该小组将通过多个天文台的光学成像和光谱学以及使用绿色班克望远镜的21厘米HI光谱学对恒星和星际介质进行普查。然后，这些数据将与类星体吸收光谱相结合，揭示环星系介质，星际介质和矮星系中恒星的内容和运动学之间的相关性。通过将结果与各种模拟的预测进行比较，研究人员和她的团队将确定矮星系气体流的性质和影响。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Most galaxies in the Universe are significantly smaller than the Milky Way and are referred to as dwarf galaxies. The dwarf galaxies have shallow gravitational potentials that enable them to spread the products of stellar nucleosynthesis far and wide. The program will study how the gas surrounding dwarf galaxies is connected to the stars within the galaxies. The investigator and her team will deduce how dwarf galaxies acquire gas, process gas into stars, and finally release gas and metals into the Universe. The program will also support astronomy classes for inmates at an Arizona state prison. The investigator will host workshops for graduate students involved in the prison education program on evidence-based teaching techniques.The team will conduct a census of stars and interstellar medium via optical imaging and spectroscopy from multiple observatories and 21cm HI spectroscopy with the Green Bank Telescope. These data will then be combined with QSO absorption spectroscopy to unveil correlations between the content and kinematics of the circumgalactic medium, interstellar medium, and stars in dwarf galaxies. By comparing the results to predictions from various simulations, the investigator and her team will identify the nature and impact of gas flow from dwarf galaxies.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.