Investigating galaxy formation and evolution at sub-millemetre to millimetre wavelengths with Herschel and Muscat

远红外到亚毫米/毫米波段的观测对于理解星系的形成和演化至关重要。事实上，宇宙中大多数恒星的形成活动都发生在尘埃遮蔽的阶段，在这个阶段，新生恒星发出的紫外线/可见光被尘埃吸收，并以远红外线/亚毫米/毫米波长重新发射出去。最近，赫歇尔空间天文台以前所未有的灵敏度和分辨率探索了这些波长的宇宙，提供了数十万个被尘埃遮蔽的星系的目录，用于详细的统计研究。通过领导赫歇尔进行的最广泛的星系外调查，即赫歇尔-阿特拉斯，卡迪夫大学在分析和科学利用这一尘埃掩盖的大样本星系方面走在了前列。此外，一种新的大画幅毫米相机，墨西哥-英国亚毫米天文相机（MUSCAT）目前正在卡迪夫建造中，一旦在2018年初安装在墨西哥的大毫米望远镜（LMT）上，它将对赫歇尔-阿特拉斯覆盖的一些河外场进行观测，从而提供新的更高分辨率的毫米波长数据。该学生将参与Herschel-ATLAS和MUSCAT数据的科学开发。他将开发一个物理模型，通过求解n体模拟中确定的暗物质晕内气体演化的基本方程，并实现现实的光谱能量分布，将方程的输出转换为可观测值，例如通量密度，来解释尘埃遮挡星系的测量统计特性。学生还将在安装在LMT上之前对MUSCAT的特征的最后阶段进行工作。一旦相机安装好，他将协助调试MUSCAT并准备天文观测仪器。然后他将帮助进行数据采集/分析。

Observations carried out at far-infrared to sub-millimetre/millimetre wavelengths are of paramount importance to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies. In fact, most of the star formation activity in the universe occurred during a dust-obscured phase, in which the UV/optical light from newly born stars was absorbed by dust and re-emitted at far-IR/sub-mm/mm wavelengths.Recently, the Herschel Space Observatory has explored the universe at those wavelengths with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, providing a catalogue of hundreds of thousands of dust-obscured galaxies to be used for detailed statistical studies. By leading the widest-area extragalactic survey ever conducted with Herschel, i.e. the Herschel-ATLAS, the Cardiff University is at the forefront in the analysis and scientific exploitation of this large sample of dust-obscured galaxies. Furthermore, a new large format millimetre camera, the Mexico-UK Sub-millimetre Camera for Astronomy (MUSCAT), is currently under construction here in Cardiff and, once installed on the Large Millimetre Telescope (LMT) in Mexico in early 2018, it will carry out observations of some of the extragalactic fields covered by Herschel-ATLAS, thus providing new higher resolution data at millimetre wavelengths.The student will take part in the scientific exploitation of the Herschel-ATLAS and MUSCAT data. He will develop a physical model to interpret the measured statistical properties of dust-obscured galaxies by solving the basic equations for the evolution of the gas within dark matter halos identified in N-body simulations and implementing realistic spectral energy distributions to convert the output of the equations into observables, eg flux densities. The student will also work on the final stages of the characterisation of MUSCAT before it is installed on the LMT. Once the camera is installed, he will assist in the commissioning of MUSCAT and readying the instrument for astronomical observations. He will then help with the data taking/analysis.