Dissecting Stars and Gas in High-redshift Cluster Galaxies with ALMA+HST+VLT

天体物理学的一个首要目标是更好地理解驱动星系演化的过程。这种理解需要一个星系的尘埃和恒星成分的空间分辨特性，以及它的气藏。首席研究员（PI）利用阿塔卡马大型亚/毫米阵列（ALMA）、哈勃太空望远镜（HST）和欧洲南方天文台的甚大望远镜（VLT）的深度观测，对中等红移星系团进行了空间分辨研究。这将使PI和她的团队能够绘制恒星形成效率和测量重子分数，评估磁盘的引力稳定性，确定空间分辨的恒星形成规律，并确定主要的恒星形成“淬火”机制及其时间尺度，所有这些都发生在宇宙“正午”-恒星形成达到其峰值强度的时代。这些结果将与星系形成和演化的宇宙学模拟进行比较。这项工作将支持一名研究生的研究活动，以及一个涉及本科生的项目，该项目涉及与项目科学目标相关的交互式可视化开发。该研究项目首次在千秒差距尺度上对z 0.1以上星系团的分子气体分布和运动学进行了观测研究。结合HST和VLT观测，多波长数据集将使研究人员能够全面剖析中等红移星系团星系的重子成分。这项研究将是对低红移的空间分辨分子气体和恒星形成的最先进的调查的补充，在人口稀少的领域（PHANGS, ALMA-QUEST）和密集的星团（VERTICO）环境中，但在明显更高的红移，以及在宇宙恒星形成和星团聚集的高峰期，当许多重要的环境影响可能发生时。此外，它将作为下一代流体动力学模拟（例如COLIBRE）的直接比较，首次直接模拟冷空气的运动学。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。

An overarching goal of astrophysics is to better understand the processes that drive the evolution of galaxies. This understanding requires spatially resolved properties of a galaxy's dust and stellar components, as well as its gas reservoir. The Principal Investigator (PI) has used deep observations with the Atacama Large Sub/Millimeter Array (ALMA), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory to carry out a spatially resolved study of moderate redshift cluster galaxies. This will allow the PI and her team to map star formation efficiency and measure baryon fractions, evaluate the gravitational stability of disks, determine a spatially resolved star formation law, and identify the dominant star formation "quenching" mechanisms and their timescales, all during cosmic "high noon" - the epoch when star formation reached its peak intensity. These results will be compared with cosmological simulations of galaxy formation and evolution. This work will support the research activities of a graduate student, as well as a program involving undergraduate students in the development of interactive visualizations related to the project's science goals. This research program features the first observational study of molecular gas distribution and kinematics on kiloparsec scales for cluster galaxies beyond z 0.1. Together with the HST and VLT observations, the combined multi-wavelength data set will allow the researchers to fully dissect the baryonic components of moderate redshift cluster galaxies. This study will be complementary to state-of-the-art surveys of spatially resolved molecular gas and star formation at low redshift in both sparsely populated fields (PHANGS, ALMA-QUEST) and in dense cluster (VERTICO) environments, but at significantly higher redshifts, and at the epoch of peak cosmic star formation and cluster assembly, when many important environmental effects are likely occurring. Moreover, it will serve as a direct comparison to the next generation of hydrodynamic simulations (e.g., COLIBRE) to model the kinematics of cold gas directly for the first time.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.