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

    Merger induced clump formation in distant infrared luminous starburst galaxies 2019A&A...632A..98C
    A SCUBA-2 selected Herschel-SPIRE dropout and the nature of this population 2019MNRAS.490.5317G
    Discovery of Four Apparently Cold Dusty Galaxies at z = 3.62─5.85 in the COSMOS Field: Direct Evidence of Cosmic Microwave Background Impact on High-redshift Galaxy Observables 2019ApJ...887..144J
    SCUBA-2 observations of candidate starbursting protoclusters selected by Planck and Herschel-SPIRE 2019MNRAS.490.3840C
    The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) 2019BAAS...51g..58K
    The nature of faint radio galaxies at high redshifts 2019MNRAS.489.5053S
    MAGPHYS+photo-z: Constraining the Physical Properties of Galaxies with Unknown Redshifts 2019ApJ...882...61B
    Neutral carbon and highly excited CO in a massive star-forming main sequence galaxy at z = 2.2 2019A&A...628A.104B
    The Dust and Molecular Gas in the Brightest Cluster Galaxy in MACS 1931.8-2635 2019ApJ...879..103F
    Ultra-bright CO and [{\rm{C}}\,{\rm{I}}] Emission in a Lensed z = 2.04 Submillimeter Galaxy with Extreme Molecular Gas Properties 2019AJ....158...34D
    The Main Sequence at z ∼ 1.3 Contains a Sizable Fraction of Galaxies with Compact Star Formation Sizes: A New Population of Early Post-starbursts? 2019ApJ...877L..23P
    ALMA Reveals Potential Evidence for Spiral Arms, Bars, and Rings in High-redshift Submillimeter Galaxies 2019ApJ...876..130H
    The new 4-m robotic telescope 2019AN....340...40G
    High Gas Fraction in a CO-detected Main-sequence Galaxy at z > 3 2019ApJ...875....6G
    Confirming Herschel Candidate Protoclusters from ALMA/VLA CO Observations 2019ApJ...872..117G
    Probing the high-redshift universe with SPICA: Toward the epoch of reionisation and beyond 2018PASA...35...48E
    MAHALO Deep Cluster Survey II. Characterizing massive forming galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster at z = 2.2 2018MNRAS.481.5630S
    The second-closest gamma-ray burst: sub-luminous GRB 111005A with no supernova in a super-solar metallicity environment 2018A&A...616A.169M
    Deciphering the Activity and Quiescence of High-redshift Cluster Environments: ALMA Observations of Cl J1449+0856 at z = 2 2018ApJ...862...64S
    Resolving the ISM at the Peak of Cosmic Star Formation with ALMA: The Distribution of CO and Dust Continuum in z ˜ 2.5 Submillimeter Galaxies 2018ApJ...863...56C
    An ALMA survey of CO in submillimetre galaxies: companions, triggering, and the environment in blended sources 2018MNRAS.479.3879W
    Merger-driven star formation activity in Cl J1449+0856 at z = 1.99 as seen by ALMA and JVLA 2018MNRAS.479..703C
    A simultaneous search for high-z LAEs and LBGs in the SHARDS survey 2018MNRAS.478.3740A
    The Dust and [C II] Morphologies of Redshift ∼4.5 Sub-millimeter Galaxies at ∼200 pc Resolution: The Absence of Large Clumps in the Interstellar Medium at High-redshift 2018ApJ...859...12G
    Giant galaxy growing from recycled gas: ALMA maps the circumgalactic molecular medium of the Spiderweb in [C I] 2018MNRAS.477L..60E
    The EDGE-CALIFA survey: validating stellar dynamical mass models with CO kinematics 2018MNRAS.477..254L
    Red, redder, reddest: SCUBA-2 imaging of colour-selected Herschel sources 2018MNRAS.477.1099D
    An Extreme Protocluster of Luminous Dusty Starbursts in the Early Universe 2018ApJ...856...72O
    Candidate high-z protoclusters among the Planck compact sources, as revealed by Herschel-SPIRE 2018MNRAS.476.3336G
    A molecular gas-rich GRB host galaxy at the peak of cosmic star formation 2018MNRAS.476.2332A
    The EDGE-CALIFA survey: the influence of galactic rotation on the molecular depletion time across the Hubble sequence 2018MNRAS.475.1791C
    The Herschel Bright Sources (HerBS): sample definition and SCUBA-2 observations 2018MNRAS.473.1751B
    A dusty star-forming galaxy at z = 6 revealed by strong gravitational lensing 2018NatAs...2...56Z
    Molecular gas in the Herschel-selected strongly lensed submillimeter galaxies at z 2-4 as probed by multi-J CO lines 2017A&A...608A.144Y
    The implications of the surprising existence of a large, massive CO disk in a distant protocluster 2017A&A...608A..48D
    High Dense Gas Fraction in Intensely Star-forming Dusty Galaxies 2017ApJ...850..170O
    The most distant, luminous, dusty star-forming galaxies: redshifts from NOEMA and ALMA spectral scans 2017MNRAS.472.2028F
    SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging EAO Survey (STUDIES): Faint-end Counts at 450 μm 2017ApJ...850...37W
    Tracing the Evolution of Dust Obscured Star Formation and Accretion Back to the Reionisation Epoch with SPICA 2017PASA...34...55G
    Galaxy Evolution Studies with the SPace IR Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA): The Power of IR Spectroscopy 2017PASA...34...57S