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

天体物理学的首要目标是更好地理解驱动星系演化的过程。这种理解需要星系的尘埃和恒星成分的空间分辨特性，以及它的气体库。首席研究员（PI）利用阿塔卡马大型亚/毫米阵列（阿尔马）、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，对中等红移星系团进行了空间分辨研究。这将使PI和她的团队能够绘制星星形成效率和测量重子分数，评估磁盘的引力稳定性，确定空间分辨的星星形成规律，并确定占主导地位的星星形成“淬火”机制及其时间尺度，所有这些都在宇宙的“正午”-星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，以及一个涉及本科生的项目，在与该项目的科学目标的交互式可视化的发展。这项研究计划的特点是第一次观测研究的分子气体分布和运动学的千秒差距尺度的星系团星系超过z0.1。结合HST和VLT观测，组合的多波长数据集将使研究人员能够充分剖析中等红移星系团的重子成分。这项研究将补充国家的最先进的调查空间分辨分子气体和星星形成在低红移在人口稀少的领域（PHANGS，ALMA-QUEST）和密集的集群（VERTICO）的环境，但在显着更高的红移，并在宇宙星星形成和集群组装的高峰时期，当许多重要的环境影响可能发生。此外，它将作为下一代流体动力学模拟的直接比较（例如，COLIBRE）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.