Collaborative Research: The Emergence of Dusty Starbursts in Cosmic History

合作研究：宇宙历史中尘埃星暴的出现

• 批准号: 2307448
• 负责人: Zhiyuan Ma
• 金额: $ 27.08万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307448&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Emergence; Dusty; Starbursts

Recently, a sizable population of galaxies has been discovered in the early universe (z 6) that are forming stars at a furious rate, i.e., 1,000 solar masses per year. For comparison, large present-day spirals like the Milky Way form 1-2 solar masses of stars each year. Just as surprising is the fact that these objects are heavily obscured by immense amounts of cosmic dust, requiring observations at very long wavelengths for detections. The very existence of massive starburst galaxies and large amounts of dust at z 6 pushes our current theory of early star formation to the limit. This collaborative project will conduct a comprehensive survey of a large sample of candidate dusty starbursts (629 objects in total) using the 50-m Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), now operating at its full capacity, to determine accurate redshifts and positions and define a statistically significant sample of z 6 objects. Deep optical and near-infrared follow-ups will identify optical counterparts and stellar masses/populations. Together, these will place strong constraints on the star formation and metal enrichment history of the early universe. This work will support a postdoc and a graduate student, public outreach activities, and a program to produce scientifically literate journalists.The overall approach is to observe the "500 micron risers" sample of 629 dusty, high-redshift galaxies using the LMT's Redshift Search Receiver. This wide-bandwidth spectrograph is an ideal instrument to measure redshifts for such objects. The team will combine institutional and open-time access to build a spectroscopic sample of ∼50 objects, of which ∼27 objects should be bona fide dusty starbursts at z 6. In addition, the LMT/TolTEC instrument will soon carry out public legacy surveys, which will provide deep, 1–2 mm images that cover a significant portion of their fields. These public data will provide millimeter photometry as well as positions accurate to ~1 arcsecond for ∼160 of the objects, which will allow the team to pinpoint their optical to near- infrared counterparts. In the end, they will have the largest spectroscopic sample and the largest counterpart sample for dusty starbursts at z 6, which they will analyze in a statistical manner. This will help fill in a critical piece that is still missing from the early cosmic star formation and metal enrichment 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.

最近，在早期宇宙(Z6)中发现了相当数量的星系，它们正在以惊人的速度形成恒星，即每年形成1000个太阳质量。相比之下，像银河系这样的大型螺旋星系每年形成1-2个太阳质量的恒星。同样令人惊讶的是，这些天体被巨大的宇宙尘埃严重遮盖，需要在非常长的波长下进行观测才能进行探测。大质量恒星爆发星系和z6处大量尘埃的存在将我们目前的早期恒星形成理论推向了极限。这一合作项目将使用50米大毫米望远镜(LMT)对一大批候选尘埃星暴(总共629个天体)进行全面调查，以确定准确的红移和位置，并确定具有统计意义的z6天体样本。深度光学和近红外后续研究将确定光学对应物和恒星质量/群。总而言之，这些都将对早期宇宙的恒星形成和金属富集史施加强有力的制约。这项工作将支持一名博士后和一名研究生，公共宣传活动，以及一个培养具有科学素养的新闻记者的计划。总体方法是使用LMT的红移搜索接收器观察629个尘土飞扬的高红移星系的“500微米升降”样本。这台宽带光谱仪是测量这类物体红移的理想仪器。该团队将结合机构和开放时间访问来建立∼50天体的光谱样本，其中∼27天体应该是位于z 6的真正的尘埃星暴。此外，LMT/TOLTEC仪器将很快进行公开的遗产调查，这将提供覆盖其领域很大一部分的1-2毫米深度图像。这些公开数据将提供毫米光度测量以及∼160天体的精确到~1角秒的位置，这将使研究小组能够精确定位它们的光学到近红外对应物。最终，他们将拥有最大的光谱样本和最大的尘埃星暴的对应样本，他们将对其进行统计分析。这将有助于填补早期宇宙恒星形成和金属富集史中仍然缺失的一个关键部分。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。