Emmy Noether Research Project, funded by the DFG
To understand galaxies, we must understand the physical processes and local conditions that drive their buildup of stellar mass through star formation. This evolution is regulated through the baryon cycle, the transformation of gas into stars and eventual ejection and recycling of that material to form the next generation of stars. The relevant physics occurs on the 50 pc scales of individual molecular clouds, star forming HII regions and supernova remnants, only now accessible in a diverse sample of external galaxies. My research group works within the PHANGS collaboration to use ALMA and VLT observations to identify and characterize the physical conditions in and around HII regions and ask: How does metal enrichment proceed within the disk? Does the injection of energy and momentum from stellar winds and supernovae trigger or suppress star formation? What is the source of ionization in the diffuse ionized gas? Addressing these topics ultimately requires us to map the internal ionization structure of star-forming regions, which will be undertaken in an ambitious new Local Volume Mapper (LVM/SDSS-V) spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies.
Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant
The introduction of heavy elements (metals) into the interstellar medium (ISM) via stellar feedback processes is crucial for the regulation of star formation and thus galaxy evolution. Metals set the heating and cooling balance in star-forming regions, and establish the carbon chemistry that is necessary for life on our planet. The gas-phase metal abundance (metallicity) is the most accessible measure of the build-up of chemical enrichment over cosmic time. However, there are large systematic uncertainties in our metallicity measurements, to the extent that we do not know if most galaxies are metal-rich or metal-poor compared to the Milky Way. These long-standing uncertainties plague our understanding of metal variations, but can now be addressed by vast new homogeneous data sets resolving tens of thousands of individual HII regions across nearby galaxies. This ambitious ERC starting grant tackles this problem by applying a data-driven approach to emission line measurements in our own Milky Way, Local Group galaxies (SDSS-V/LVM) and more distant Local Volume galaxies (PHANGS-MUSE). This project aims to resolve long-standing discrepancies in absolute metallicity calibrations and develop new and robust prescriptions that directly address electron temperature uncertainties. We will apply our methods to map out metallicity variations across more than 50 galaxies, providing quantitative constraints on the mixing scale and correlations with local physical conditions in the ISM. By establishing a new homogeneous local benchmark for absolute metallicity measurements, the ISM-METALS project will build a foundation for future studies of galaxy metallicities, enabling the robust interpretation of metallicity variations soon to be measured across cosmic time with upcoming new facilities (JWST, ELT).
The PHANGS survey is making high resolution observations of nearby galaxies with several telescope, including ALMA, HST, and MUSE/VLT. We aim to understand the interplay of the small-scale physics of gas and star formation with galactic structure and galaxy evolution.
Learn moreThe Local Volume Mapper (LVM) is an optical, integral-field spectroscopic survey that will target the Milky Way, Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, and other Local Volume galaxies at unprecidented spatial resolution (1-10pc). LVM will make use of new telescopes and newly built spectrographs that cover a wavelength range of 3600-10000 A, with spectral resolution R~4000 (based on the DESI spectrograph design). This new LVM instrument will collect roughly 20 million contiguous spectra over 2,500 square degrees of sky, including the midplane of the Milky Way, Orion, and the Magellanic Clouds from Las Campanas Observatory, Chile in SDSS-V.
Learn moreA multi-wavelength view of the ISM provides critical insights into the varying physical conditions (temperature, density, metallicity) and gas phases (ionized, atomic, molecular). Dithered observations with the PMAS/PPAK instrument, with its combination of wide field of view and high resolution, provides a wealth of optical emission line information with the flexibility to spatially convolve and match lower resolution images for a variety of different instruments and different science goals. Pointing positions are selected based on the exisitng KINGFISH Herschel PACS fields for 21 galaxies.
Learn moreNeutral hydrogen plays a central role in both driving and regulating star formation over cosmic time. We will produce the first HI deep field, to be carried out with the VLA in B array and covering a redshift range from z=0 to z=0.45
Learn moreVoid galaxies, residing within the deepest underdensities of the Cosmic Web, present an ideal population for the study of galaxy formation and evolution in an environment undisturbed by the complex processes modifying galaxies in clusters and groups, as well as provide an observational test for theories of cosmological structure formation. Curent work aims to obtain a full IFU view of galaxies that inhabit voids through the CAVITY project.
Learn moreLVM will resolve the internal structure of star forming regions and ionized nebulae, enabling us to observe the "energy injection scale" and quantify the impact of feedback. Within the Baryon Cycle group, our subproject aims to compile catalogs of essential ancillary data and optimize the survey strategy, in order to ensure that SDSS-V/LVM data can be exploited as soon as it become available.
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Using privileged access to KINGFISH, a legacy dataset of 61 galaxies, and data from our neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), we aimed to measure the "The Reach of Stars". We studied; a) the cooling mechanisms of the ISM using molecular and atomic emission lines, and b) ISM heating from the scales of molecular clouds and up, respectively, and reconcile these with the observed distribution of stars.
This project was funded through the DFG priority program 1573 "Physics of the Interstellar Medium", and ran from 2012-2018. A list of project-related publications is available here.
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