Molecular Gas and Dust in Galaxies Across Cosmic Time

Start year
2015
Organizational Unit
    General
    Description

    Two of the most fundamental questions in astrophysics are the conversion of molecular gas into stars and how this physical process is a function of environments on all scales, ranging from planetary systems, stellar clusters, galaxies to galaxy clusters. The main goal of this internal project is to get insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies from the cold interstellar medium. This is achieved by probing the cold molecular gas, the fuel of star formation, and dust, the by-product of this formation process, in galaxies across cosmic time. The studies are mainly based on observations in the far-infrared and radio wavelength regime with a special focus on radio interferometric observations with state-of-the art telescopes such as NOEMA, ALMA, ATCA, VLA and SMA. There will be close interrelation with other internal research projects e.g., providing our expertise on radio (interferometric) observations of galaxies. The research group will characterize the star-formation properties of massive galaxies in the distant universe at different epochs enabling us to study the formation sequence of star-forming galaxies. Furthermore, to probe the environmental-dependent evolution, the investigated sources are selected from galaxy clusters and the field. In addition, complementary studies of nearby galaxies (selected from CALIFA and WEAVE-APERTIF) serve as a local reference sample for future studies of high-redshift galaxies.

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    1. Follow-up observations of a lensed dusty starburst galaxy at z=2.04 with the radio interferometer IRAM NOEMA discovered extreme molecular gas properties and revealed the brightest emission in molecular gas ever seen in the distant universe; Dannerbauer et al. 2019, AJ, in press (astro-ph/1812.03845)..
    2. Contrubution with several articles as co-author (part of international collaborations) of the study of galaxy cluster in formation and its members via multi-wavelenth observations.
    3. Obtaining external funding from 'plan nacional' by MINECO for 2018 and 2019 including funding of a two-years postdoc (AYA2017-84061-P: ´From the first over-densitities to proto-clusters and clusters: The role of the environment´, 141.570 Euro, IP1: H. Dannerbauer, IP2: J. M. Rodriguez-Espinosa).
    4. Obtaining observing time to continue and the finish the ATCA Large Program 'COALAS: CO ATCA Legacy Archive of Star-Forming Galaxies' (PI: Helmut Dannerbauer), in total 640 hrs. (~500.000 Euro). IRAM NOEMA Large Program ‘A Comprehensive NOEMA Redshift Survey of the Brightest Herschel Galaxies’ (CoPI: Dannerbauer) approved, 191 hrs. (~770.000 Euro).
    5. Organization of the mini-synposium 'Build-Up of Galaxy Clusters' during the IAU XXX General Assembly in Vienna in August 2018 and of the splinter meeting "Collaborative GTC-LMT project" during the GTC conference in Valencia in December 2018.

    Related publications

    SHARDS Frontier Fields: Physical Properties of a Low-mass Lyα Emitter at z = 5.75 2017ApJ...849...82H
    The EDGE–CALIFA Survey: Variations in the Molecular Gas Depletion Time in Local Galaxies 2017ApJ...849...26U
    Dust and gas in star-forming galaxies at z 3. Extending galaxy uniformity to 11.5 billion years 2017A&A...603A..93M
    Herschel and Hubble Study of a Lensed Massive Dusty Starbursting Galaxy at z ˜ 3 2017ApJ...844...82N
    An Imperfectly Passive Nature: Bright Submillimeter Emission from Dust-obscured Star Formation in the z = 3.717 “Passive” System, ZF 20115 2017ApJ...844L..10S
    A Spatially Resolved Study of Cold Dust, Molecular Gas, H ii Regions, and Stars in the z = 2.12 Submillimeter Galaxy ALESS67.1 2017ApJ...846..108C
    The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Interferometric Observations of 126 Galaxies with CARMA 2017ApJ...846..159B
    VALES I: the molecular gas content in star-forming dusty H-ATLAS galaxies up to z = 0.35 2017MNRAS.470.3775V
    Discovery of a Lensed Ultrabright Submillimeter Galaxy at z = 2.0439 2017ApJ...843L..22D
    Integral field spectroscopy of nearby quasi-stellar objects - II. Molecular gas content and conditions for star formation 2017MNRAS.470.1570H
    A near/mid infrared search for ultra-bright submillimetre galaxies: Searching for Cosmic Eyelash Analogues 2017MNRAS.467..330I
    The AT-LESS CO(1-0) survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: First results on cold molecular gas in galaxies at z ˜ 2 2017MNRAS.467.1222H
    Molecular gas in supernova local environments unveiled by EDGE 2017MNRAS.468..628G
    High Dense Gas Fraction in a Gas-rich Star-forming Galaxy at z = 1.2 2017ApJ...838..136G
    The Interstellar Medium in High-redshift Submillimeter Galaxies as Probed by Infrared Spectroscopy* 2017ApJ...837...12W
    The Herschel-ATLAS: a sample of 500 μm-selected lensed galaxies over 600 deg2 2017MNRAS.465.3558N