US-France Cooperative Research: Large-Scale Clustering of Dwarf and Low-Brightness Galaxies

该奖项将支持弗吉尼亚大学的Trin h Tuan博士与法国Meudon巴黎天文台的Rene Pellat博士和Jean-Michel Alimi博士在银河系天文学方面的合作研究。这项拟议研究的目标是研究矮星系和巨星系的相对分布。研究人员建议研究北半球矮小和低表面亮度星系的空间分布，以Tuan博士开发的21厘米红移测量为基础，在Uppsala星系总目录中将大约1800个星系归类为矮星系、麦哲伦星系和不规则星系。这些数据代表了关于暗星系空间分布的一个重要的新信息来源。具体地说，他们将研究与明亮星系相比的矮星系的星系团属性。他们还计划计算其他统计数据，例如与具有给定绝对边缘的明亮星系相关的矮小星系的平均数。这种类型的统计对于理解其他天体物理现象是至关重要的。这一项目的结果可能会对目前关于星系形成和宇宙是否含有足够暗物质以关闭的问题的想法产生重要影响。该项目将受益于特恩博士在矮小星系方面的专业知识，以及法国在统计技术分析星系团方面的经验。

This award will support collaborative research in galactic astronomy between Dr. Trinh Thuan, University of Virginia and Dr. Rene Pellat and Jean-Michel Alimi of the Paris Observatory, Meudon, France. The objective of the proposed research is a study of the comparative distribution of dwarf and giant galaxies. The investigators propose to study the spatial distribution of dwarf and low-surface brightness galaxies in the northern hemisphere, using as the data base a 21 cm redshift survey developed by Dr. Thuan of approximately 1800 galaxies classified as dwarf, magellenic and irregular in the Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies. These data represent an important new source of information on the spatial distribution of intrinsically faint galaxies. Specifically, they will examine the clustering properties of dwarf galaxies, compared to those of bright galaxies. They also plan to compute other statistics, such as the mean number of dwarf galaxies associated with a bright galaxy of a given absolute margin. This type of statistic is of prime importance for the understanding of other astrophysical phenomena. The results of this project may have an important influence on present ideas on the "biassing" of galaxy formation and the question of whether the Universe contain enough dark matter to be closed. The project will benefit from the combined expertise of Dr. Thuan in dwarf galaxies and the French experience in statistical techniques to analyze galaxy clustering.