Galaxies, AGN, and the IGM During the Peak Epoch of Galaxy Formation

AST-0606912 Steidel这个项目包括几个相关的观测计划，以研究恒星形成星系，活动星系核和弥漫星系际介质中的气体之间的相互联系，可能是在形成大质量星系及其中心黑洞的高峰时期，红移1.5至3.5（对应于宇宙年龄的70-90%的回顾时间）。 将特别注意的位置，寿命和占空比的吸积超大质量黑洞，并到星系和星系际介质的辐射和流体动力学反馈。 我们的目标是了解反馈如何在小尺度和大尺度上起作用，并推断它如何塑造了随后的结构演化，从而形成了我们今天看到的宇宙。 这项工作依赖于这些研究人员在以前的NSF支持的研究中开发和测试的方法，重点是该团队可用的工具和资源在很大程度上是独特的项目。 对控制良好的测量体积进行密集的光谱采样，将使有史以来第一次对高红移宇宙进行层析观测成为可能。 这些数据将提供一个三维地图的重子和他们的物理状态，分布在整个宇宙学卷，并允许从根本上新的约束的物理学星系的形成，其结果将提供基本的统计信息有用的研究人员在许多子领域在整个河外天文学和宇宙学。 其中大部分工作是对科学案例的早期测试，这些案例推动了下一代地基光学/红外望远镜的设计。 结果和原始数据将尽快提供给天文学界。

AST-0606912SteidelThis project includes several related observational programs to study the inter-connection between star-forming galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and gas in the diffuse intergalactic medium, during perhaps the peak era for forming massive galaxies and their central black holes, redshifts 1.5 to 3.5 (corresponding to look-back times of from 70-90% of the age of the Universe). Particular attention will be paid to the locations, lifetimes, and duty-cycles of accreting super-massive black holes, and to radiative and hydrodynamical feedback into galaxies and the intergalactic medium. The goal is to understand how feedback works on both small and large scales, and to infer how it shaped the subsequent evolution of structure to make the Universe we see today. This work relies on methods developed and tested by these researchers during previous NSF-supported studies, and the focus is on projects for which the tools and resources available to this team are largely unique. Dense spectroscopic sampling of well-controlled survey volumes will enable the first-ever tomographic observations of the high redshift Universe. These data will provide a three dimensional map of the baryons and their physical state, distributed throughout cosmological volumes, and allow for fundamentally new constraints on the physics of galaxy formation.The results will provide fundamental statistical information useful to researchers in many sub-fields throughout extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. Much of this work constitutes early testing of science cases that drive the design of next-generation ground-based optical/infra-red telescopes. Results and primary data will be made available as soon as possible to the astronomical community.