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

    The WaZP galaxy cluster sample of the dark energy survey year 1 2021MNRAS.502.4435A
    CO Excitation, Molecular Gas Density, and Interstellar Radiation Field in Local and High-redshift Galaxies 2021ApJ...909...56L
    The interstellar medium of quiescent galaxies and its evolution with time 2021A&A...647A..33M
    Probing the existence of a rich galaxy overdensity at z = 5.2 2021MNRAS.502.4558C
    Close-up view of a luminous star-forming galaxy at z = 2.95 2021A&A...646A.122B
    Turbulent Gas in Lensed Planck-selected Starbursts at z ∼ 1-3.5 2021ApJ...908...95H
    Cosmological constraints from DES Y1 cluster abundances and SPT multiwavelength data 2021PhRvD.103d3522C
    DES Y1 results: Splitting growth and geometry to test Λ CDM 2021PhRvD.103b3528M
    A machine learning approach to galaxy properties: joint redshift-stellar mass probability distributions with Random Forest 2021MNRAS.502.2770M
    Evolution of galaxy scaling relations in clusters at 0.5 < z < 1.5 2021A&A...646A..53P
    Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Optimizing the lens sample in a combined galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing analysis 2021PhRvD.103d3503P
    Shadows in the Dark: Low-surface-brightness Galaxies Discovered in the Dark Energy Survey 2021ApJS..252...18T
    The effect of environment on Type Ia supernovae in the Dark Energy Survey three-year cosmological sample 2021MNRAS.501.4861K
    Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: the lensing imprint of cosmic voids on the cosmic microwave background 2021MNRAS.500..464V
    An ALMA/NOEMA survey of the molecular gas properties of high-redshift star-forming galaxies 2021MNRAS.501.3926B
    Compact, bulge-dominated structures of spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at z ≍ 3 2021MNRAS.501.2659L
    Machine Learning for Searching the Dark Energy Survey for Trans-Neptunian Objects 2021PASP..133a4501H
    Dark Energy Survey year 3 results: point spread function modelling 2021MNRAS.501.1282J
    Tracing the evolution of dust-obscured activity using sub-millimetre galaxy populations from STUDIES and AS2UDS 2021MNRAS.500..942D
    The EDGE-CALIFA survey: exploring the role of molecular gas on galaxy star formation quenching 2020A&A...644A..97C
    Perturbation theory for modeling galaxy bias: Validation with simulations of the Dark Energy Survey 2020PhRvD.102l3522P
    Tracing the evolution of dust-obscured activity using sub-millimetre galaxy populations from STUDIES and AS2UDS 2020MNRAS.500..942D
    First Cosmology Results using Supernovae Ia from the Dark Energy Survey: Survey Overview, Performance, and Supernova Spectroscopy 2020AJ....160..267S
    A DESGW Search for the Electromagnetic Counterpart to the LIGO/Virgo Gravitational-wave Binary Neutron Star Merger Candidate S190510g 2020ApJ...903...75G
    Observations of [OI]63-=μm line emission in main-sequence galaxies at z ∼ 1.5 2020MNRAS.499.1788W
    μ<SUB>⋆</SUB> masses: weak-lensing calibration of the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 redMaPPer clusters using stellar masses 2020MNRAS.498.5450P
    CO emission in distant galaxies on and above the main sequence 2020A&A...641A.155V
    Dust Reverberation Mapping in Distant Quasars from Optical and Mid-infrared Imaging Surveys 2020ApJ...900...58Y
    Noise from undetected sources in Dark Energy Survey images 2020MNRAS.497.2529E
    Emergence of an Ultrared, Ultramassive Galaxy Cluster Core at z = 4 2020ApJ...898..133L
    IRAM 30-m-EMIR redshift search of z = 3─4 lensed dusty starbursts selected from the HerBS sample 2020MNRAS.496.2372B
    Understanding galaxy formation and evolution through an all-sky submillimetre spectroscopic survey 2020PASA...37...25N
    COLDz: A High Space Density of Massive Dusty Starburst Galaxies ∼1 Billion Years after the Big Bang 2020ApJ...895...81R
    SCUBA-2 overdensities associated with candidate protoclusters selected from Planck data 2020MNRAS.494.5985C
    The Typical Massive Quiescent Galaxy at z ∼ 3 is a Post-starburst 2020ApJ...892L...2D
    Extended Hα over compact far-infrared continuum in dusty submillimeter galaxies. Insights into dust distributions and star-formation rates at z ∼ 2 2020A&A...635A.119C
    NOEMA redshift measurements of bright Herschel galaxies 2020A&A...635A...7N
    The Properties of the Interstellar Medium of Galaxies across Time as Traced by the Neutral Atomic Carbon [C i] 2020ApJ...890...24V
    SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging EAO Survey (Studies). III. Multiwavelength Properties, Luminosity Functions, and Preliminary Source Catalog of 450 μm Selected Galaxies 2020ApJ...889...80L
    On the Gas Content, Star Formation Efficiency, and Environmental Quenching of Massive Galaxies in Protoclusters at z ≈ 2.0─2.5 2019ApJ...887..183Z