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

马德琳·露西被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学奖学金，以在宾夕法尼亚大学开展一项研究和教育计划。Lucey将使用大型光谱测量和机器学习来研究我们银河系内部区域恒星的化学和运动。这项工作的结果将阐明驱动我们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将指导相关研究项目的本科生，在物理系举办一个读书俱乐部，重点关注科学教育的公平，并通过费城的天文学Tap分会开展外联活动。这项研究项目将使用数百万颗恒星的光谱数据来更好地了解内星系的化学和动力学结构，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将研究压力支撑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。对于第二部分，Lucey将通过确定条轨道家族的化学分布来研究支持自转的银河系条，以追踪条的形成历史。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.