Series: Astronomy Colloquium
Date: Wednesday 07-Apr-2021
Time: 16:00-17:00 (4:00-5:00 pm)
Location: Zoom
Speaker: Dr. Andrew Baker (Rutgers)
Title: The LADUMA Deep HI Survey
To understand how galaxies evolve across cosmic time, we must understand not only their dark matter and their stars, but also the properties of their interstellar gas, from which new stars form and into which old stars release the products of their nucleosynthesis. Neutral atomic hydrogen (HI), which is best traced at radio wavelengths using the 21cm spin-flip transition, represents a significant fraction of normal galaxies' gas reservoirs. I will describe what we can learn from HI observations of galaxies about their evolutionary states, and how this work will soon be extended to a redshift of 1.4 (i.e., a lookback time of 9 Gyr) in the context of the LADUMA (Looking At the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array) deep HI survey. LADUMA will use South Africa's "MeerKAT" SKA precursor to observe a single position on the sky for over three thousand hours, complementing other MeerKAT surveys that will probe HI across a set of wider/shallower fields, in individual nearby galaxies, and in absorption against bright background quasars. I will also discuss prospects for using detections of OH megamasers in the LADUMA field to study the cosmic history of gas-rich galaxy mergers.
Colloquia for the Fall 2020 semester will be held on zoom. Contact Dr. Leslie Sage for details.
Colloquium Organizer:
Dr. Leslie Sage
Special accommodations for individuals with disabilities can be made by calling (301) 405-3001. It would be appreciated if we are notified at least one week in advance.
