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

使用 ALMA HST VLT 剖析高红移星团星系中的恒星和气体

• 批准号: 2307877
• 负责人: Allison Noble
• 金额: $ 51.29万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 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: 2023-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307877&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissecting; Stars; Gas; redshift; Cluster

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.

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。这种理解需要银河系尘埃和恒星成分以及气藏的空间分辨性质。首席调查员(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)进行了深度观测，对中等红移星系团星系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图并测量重子比例，评估圆盘的引力稳定性，确定空间分辨的恒星形成规律，并确定主要的恒星形成“猝灭”机制及其时间尺度，所有这些都发生在宇宙“正午”--恒星形成达到峰值强度的时期。这些结果将与星系形成和演化的宇宙学模拟进行比较。这项工作将支持研究生的研究活动，以及一个让本科生参与开发与项目科学目标相关的互动可视化的项目。这项研究计划的特点是首次对超过z0.1的星系团的千帕秒尺度上的分子气体分布和运动学进行观测研究。结合HST和VLT的观测，组合的多波长数据集将使研究人员能够完全剖析中等红移星系团的重子成分。这项研究将是对在稀疏场(PHANGS，ALMA-QUEST)和密集星系团(VERTICO)环境中低红移，但红移明显较高，以及在宇宙恒星形成和星团组装的顶峰时期，许多重要环境效应可能发生的情况下，空间可分辨分子气体和恒星形成的最新调查的补充。此外，它将作为下一代流体动力学模拟(例如COLIBRE)的直接比较，首次直接模拟冷气体的运动学。该奖项反映了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。