Galaxy growth and evolution over the last ~8 billion years

过去约 80 亿年的星系生长和演化

• 批准号: 2291012
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2291012
• 关键词: Galaxy; growth; evolution; over; last

Disk galaxies with masses similar to that of the Milky Way are very common in the Universe, and they build up to their masses both by forming new stars in situ and by absorbing the stars from smaller satellite galaxies. Such "minor" (and even "micro") mergers are likely responsible for a substantial amount of galaxy growth across the full population. The tidal streams from these interactions also remain coherent for billions of years and are extremely valuable as archaeological remnants of galactic formation processes. However, very little is understood about the effect of these minor interactions on galaxy evolution as a whole, because the unique properties of their tidal signatures present significant challenges to both observing them in real galaxies and modelling them with computer simulations.With the latest generation of survey telescopes and high-resolution cosmological models, however, that is about to change. This project will therefore combine cutting-edge observational, theoretical and statistical approaches to understanding the growth of disk galaxies via mergers. A key aim is to develop a new analytical tool for quantitatively constraining the merger history of galaxies given their observed tidal features. This will involve hands-on work with large datasets as well as working with and writing code. This analysis package will be of significant interest to the astrophysical community, as will the project's results applying that code to the latest data from current surveys such as the Dark Energy Survey and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope commissioning surveys, which will commence during the term of this project.The student will join multiple established, productive communities, such as the Galaxy Zoo and Horizon-AGN projects. They will likely also have the opportunity to gain hands-on observing experience at world-class telescopes. This project would suit someone with some experience of writing code (Python, Java etc) and, more importantly, with a strong interest in developing that skill for use in statistical analysis of large data sets.

质量与银河系相似的盘状星系在宇宙中非常常见，它们通过在原地形成新的恒星和吸收较小的卫星星系的恒星来增加质量。这种“小”（甚至是“微”）合并可能是整个星系大量增长的原因。来自这些相互作用的潮汐流也保持了数十亿年的连贯性，作为银河系形成过程的考古遗迹，它们极具价值。然而，人们对这些微小的相互作用对星系演化的整体影响知之甚少，因为它们潮汐特征的独特性质给在真实的星系中观测它们以及用计算机模拟它们带来了巨大的挑战。然而，随着最新一代巡天望远镜和高分辨率宇宙学模型的出现，这种情况即将改变。因此，该项目将结合联合收割机尖端的观测、理论和统计方法，以了解盘状星系通过合并的增长。一个关键的目标是开发一种新的分析工具，定量限制合并历史的星系观察到的潮汐功能。这将涉及与大型数据集的实际操作，以及使用和编写代码。该分析包将对天体物理界产生重大影响，该项目的结果将应用于当前调查的最新数据，如暗能量调查和大型综合巡天望远镜委托调查，这些调查将在本项目期间开始。学生将加入多个建立的，富有成效的社区，如银河动物园和地平线AGN项目。他们还可能有机会在世界级望远镜上获得实际观测经验。这个项目将适合有一些编写代码（Python，Java等）的经验的人，更重要的是，对开发用于大型数据集统计分析的技能有浓厚的兴趣。