Postdoctoral Fellowship: AAPF: Our Galaxy's Formation: Decoding the Clues Concealed in its Center

Madeline Lucey被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学奖学金，在宾夕法尼亚大学开展研究和教育项目。Lucey将使用大型光谱调查和机器学习来研究我们银河系内部区域的化学和恒星运动。这项工作的结果将阐明推动银河系形成和演化的主要物理过程。对于这个项目的教育部分，Lucey将指导本科生进行相关的研究项目，在物理系经营一个关注科学教育公平的读书俱乐部，并通过费城的天文分会开展外展活动。该研究项目将利用数百万颗恒星的光谱数据来更好地了解银河系内部的化学和动力结构，同时利用宇宙学放大模拟来测试这些结构是如何受到星系形成过程的影响的。在这个项目的第一部分，Lucey将研究在压力支持的银河系内晕中化学和动力学之间的关系，以阐明银河系早期形成历史中等级和长期演化的相对作用。在第二部分中，Lucey将通过确定银条轨道族的化学分布来研究由旋转支撑的银条，以追踪银条的形成历史。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。

Madeline Lucey is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of Pennsylvania. Lucey will use large spectroscopic surveys and machine learning to study the chemistry, and movement of stars in the inner regions of our Galaxy. Results from this work will illuminate the major physical processes driving the formation and evolution of our Galaxy. For the educational component of this project, Lucey will mentor undergraduate students in related research projects, run a book club in the physics department focused on equity in science education, and perform outreach activities through Philadelphia's Astronomy on Tap chapter. This research project will use spectroscopic data of millions of stars to better understand the chemical and dynamical structure of the inner Galaxy, while making use of cosmological zoom-in simulations to test how those structures are impacted by the processes of Galaxy formation. For the first part of this project, Lucey will investigate the relation between chemistry and dynamics in the pressure-supported inner Galactic halo in order to illuminate the relative roles of hierarchical and secular evolution in the Galaxy's early formation history. For the second part, Lucey will study the rotation-supported Galactic bar by determining the chemical distributions of the bar orbit families in order to trace the bar's formation history.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.