Studies of the Cosmological Star and AGN Formation Histories

利用詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦望远镜上革命性的水肺（亚毫米普通用户辐射热计阵列）相机进行的亚毫米观测显示，在高红移处存在着一群被尘埃遮蔽的超亮星系，它们构成了宇宙远红外背景的很大一部分。要完全确定宇宙历史的许多方面，就需要对这些被尘埃覆盖的星系群有全面的了解，尽管已经取得了巨大的进展，但仍有许多领域存在不确定性。一个困难出现在那些没有已知射电或x射线对应的星系上，它们的距离（红移）无法测量，因为它们在天空中的位置知之甚少。新的亚毫米阵列望远镜将能够提供精确的位置，从而解决这个问题。此外，关于微弱光源信息的缺乏将通过在天空区域的深亚毫米观测来解决，该区域在各种其他波长区域都有当前和计划的数据。这项研究是理解恒星形成和宇宙活动星系核历史的基础，并将形成研究生的论文，他将在这个新兴领域得到很好的训练。

AST-0407374CowieSub-millimeter observations with the revolutionary SCUBA (Sub-millimeter Common-User Bolometer Array) camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope revealed the existence of a population of dust-obscured ultra-luminous galaxies at high redshifts that constitutes a substantial fraction of the cosmic far-infrared background. A full determination of many aspects of the history of the universe requires a comprehensive understanding of this dust-enshrouded galaxy population, and although enormous progress has been made, there are still many areas of uncertainty. One difficulty arises with galaxies with no known radio or X-ray counterpart, whose distance (redshift) cannot be measured because their location on the sky is only poorly known. The new Sub-millimeter Array telescope will be able to provide accurate positions and thus to fix this problem. In addition, the paucity of information about faint sources will be addressed with deep sub-millimeter observations in a region of the sky that has both current and planned data in various other wavelength regions. This research is fundamental to understanding the star formation and active galactic nucleus histories of the Universe, and will form the thesis of a graduate student, who will be well trained in this burgeoning field.