Collaborative Research: The Emergence of Dusty Starbursts in Cosmic History

最近，在早期宇宙（z 6）中发现了相当数量的星系，它们正以极快的速度形成恒星，即每年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，这些天体被大量的宇宙尘埃严重遮蔽，需要在非常长的波长进行观测才能探测到。z6星系中大量星暴星系和大量尘埃的存在将我们目前关于早期恒星形成的理论推向了极限。这个合作项目将使用50米大毫米望远镜（LMT）对大量候选尘埃星暴样本（总共629个物体）进行全面调查，以确定准确的红移和位置，并定义z 6物体的统计显著样本。深光学和近红外后续观测将识别光学对应物和恒星质量/种群。总之，这些将对早期宇宙的恒星形成和金属富集历史施加强有力的限制。这项工作将支持一名博士后和一名研究生、公共宣传活动和一项培养具有科学素养的记者的计划。总体方法是使用LMT的红移搜索接收器观察629个多尘高红移星系的“500微米上升体”样本。这种宽频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一个约50个物体的光谱样本，其中约27个物体应该是z6的真正的尘埃星暴。此外，LMT/TolTEC仪器将很快进行公共遗产调查，这将提供深度1-2毫米的图像，覆盖其领域的很大一部分。这些公共数据将提供毫米光度测量，以及对约160个物体精确到~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。最后，他们将获得z6星尘爆发的最大光谱样本和最大对应样本，他们将以统计方式对其进行分析。这将有助于填补早期宇宙恒星形成和金属富集历史中仍然缺失的关键部分。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。

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.