Matching Items (22)
Description
A thorough exploration of star formation necessitates observation across the electromagnetic spectrum. In particular, observations in the submillimeter and ultra-violet allow one to observe very early stage star formation and to trace the evolution from molecular cloud collapse to stellar ignition. Submillimeter observations are essential for piercing the heart of heavily obscured stellar nurseries to observe star formation in its infancy. Ultra-violet observations allow one to observe stars just after they emerge from their surrounding environment, allowing higher energy radiation to escape. To make detailed observations of early stage star formation in both spectral regimes requires state-of-the-art detector technology and instrumentation. In this dissertation, I discuss the calibration and feasibility of detectors developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and specially processed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to increase their quantum efficiency at far-ultraviolet wavelengths. A cursory treatment of the delta-doping process is presented, followed by a thorough discussion of calibration procedures developed at JPL and in the Laboratory for Astronomical and Space Instrumentation at ASU. Subsequent discussion turns to a novel design for a Modular Imager Cell forming one possible basis for construction of future large focal plane arrays. I then discuss the design, fabrication, and calibration of a sounding rocket imaging system developed using the MIC and these specially processed detectors. Finally, I discuss one scientific application of sub-mm observations. I used data from the Heinrich Hertz Sub-millimeter Telescope and the Sub-Millimeter Array (SMA) to observe sub-millimeter transitions and continuum emission towards AFGL 2591. I tested the use of vibrationally excited HCN emission to probe the protostellar accretion disk structure. I measured vibrationally excited HCN line ratios in order to elucidate the appropriate excitation mechanism. I find collisional excitation to be dominant, showing the emission originates in extremely dense (n&sim10;11 cm-3), warm (T&sim1000; K) gas. Furthermore, from the line profile of the v=(0, 22d, 0) transition, I find evidence for a possible accretion disk.
ContributorsVeach, Todd Justin (Author) / Scowen, Paul A (Thesis advisor) / Groppi, Christopher E (Thesis advisor) / Beasley, Matthew N (Committee member) / Rhoads, James E (Committee member) / Windhorst, Rogier A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Understanding the properties and formation histories of individual stars in galaxies remains one of the most important areas in astrophysics. The impact of the Hubble Space Telescope<\italic> (HST<\italic>) has been revolutionary, providing deep observations of nearby galaxies at high resolution and unprecedented sensitivity over a wavelength range from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared. In this study, I use deep HST<\italic> imaging observations of three nearby star-forming galaxies (M83, NGC 4214, and CGCG 269-049) based on the HST<\italic> observations, in order to provide to construct color-magnitude and color-color diagrams of their resolved stellar populations. First, I select 50 regions in the spiral arm and inter-arm areas of M83, and determine the age distribution of the luminous stellar populations in each region. I developed an innovative method of star-by-star correction for internal extinction to improve stellar age and mass estimates. I compare the extinction-corrected ages of the 50 regions with those determined from several independent methods. The young stars are much more likely to be found in concentrated aggregates along spiral arms, while older stars are more dispersed. These results are consistent with a scenario where star formation is associated with the spiral arms, and stars form primarily in star clusters before dispersing on short timescales to form the field population. I address the effects of spatial resolution on the measured colors, magnitudes, and age estimates. While individual stars can occasionally show measurable differences in the colors and magnitudes, the age estimates for entire regions are only slightly affected. The same procedure is applied to nearby starbursting dwarf NGC 4214 to study the distributions of young and old stellar populations. Lastly, I describe the analysis of the HST<\italic> and Spitzer Space Telescope<\italic> observations of the extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxy (XMPG) CGCG 269-049 at a distance of 4.96 Mpc. This galaxy is one of the most metal-poor known with 12+log(O/H)=7.43. I find clear evidence for the presence of an old stellar population in CGCG~269-049, ruling out the possibility that this galaxy is forming its first generation of stars, as originally proposed for XMPGs. This comprehensive study of resolved stellar populations in three nearby galaxies provides detailed view of the current state of star formation and evolution of galaxies.
ContributorsKim, Hwihyun (Author) / Windhorst, Rogier A (Thesis advisor) / Jansen, Rolf A (Committee member) / Rhoads, James E (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Young, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This work examines star formation in the debris associated with collisions of dwarf and spiral galaxies. While the spectacular displays of major mergers are famous (e.g., NGC 4038/9, ``The Antennae''), equal mass galaxy mergers are relatively rare compared to minor mergers (mass ratio <0.3) Minor mergers are less energetic than major mergers, but more common in the observable universe and, thus, likely played a pivotal role in the formation of most large galaxies. Centers of mergers host vigorous star formation from high gas density and turbulence and are surveyed over cosmological distances. However, the tidal debris resulting from these mergers have not been well studied. Such regions have large reservoirs of gaseous material that can be used as fuel for subsequent star formation but also have lower gas density. Tracers of star formation at the local and global scale have been examined for three tidal tails in two minor merger systems. These tracers include young star cluster populations, H-alpha, and [CII] emission. The rate of apparent star formation derived from these tracers is compared to the gas available to estimate the star formation efficiency (SFE). The Western tail of NGC 2782 formed isolated star clusters while massive star cluster complexes are found in the UGC 10214 (``The Tadpole'') and Eastern tail of NGC 2782. Due to the lack of both observable CO and [CII] emission, the observed star formation in the Western tail of NGC 2782 may have a low carbon abundance and represent only the first round of local star formation. While the Western tail has a normal SFE, the Eastern tail in the same galaxy has an low observed SFE. In contrast, the Tadpole tidal tail has a high observed star formation rate and a corresponding high SFE. The low SFE observed in the Eastern tail of NGC 2782 may be due to its origin as a splash region where localized gas heating is important. However, the other tails may be tidally formed regions where gravitational compression likely dominates and enhances the local star formation.
ContributorsKnierman, Karen A (Author) / Scowen, Paul (Thesis advisor) / Groppi, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Mauskopf, Philip (Committee member) / Windhorst, Rogier (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Galaxies with strong Lyman-alpha (Lya) emission line (also called Lya galaxies or emitters) offer an unique probe of the epoch of reionization - one of the important phases when most of the neutral hydrogen in the universe was ionized. In addition, Lya galaxies at high redshifts are a powerful tool to study low-mass galaxy formation. Since current observations suggest that the reionization is complete by redshift z~ 6, it is therefore necessary to discover galaxies at z > 6, to use their luminosity function (LF) as a probe of reionization. I found five z = 7.7 candidate Lya galaxies with line fluxes > 7x10-18 erg/s/cm/2 , from three different deep near-infrared (IR) narrowband (NB) imaging surveys in a volume > 4x104Mpc3. From the spectroscopic followup of four candidate galaxies, and with the current spectroscopic sensitivity, the detection of only the brightest candidate galaxy can be ruled out at 5 sigma level. Moreover, these observations successfully demonstrate that the sensitivity necessary for both, the NB imaging as well as the spectroscopic followup of z~ 8 Lya galaxies can be reached with the current instrumentation. While future, more sensitive spectroscopic observations are necessary, the observed Lya LF at z = 7.7 is consistent with z = 6.6 LF, suggesting that the intergalactic medium (IGM) is relatively ionized even at z = 7.7, with neutral fraction xHI≤ 30%. On the theoretical front, while several models of Lya emitters have been developed, the physical nature of Lya emitters is not yet completely known. Moreover, multi-parameter models and their complexities necessitates a simpler model. I have developed a simple, single-parameter model to populate dark mater halos with Lya emitters. The central tenet of this model, different from many of the earlier models, is that the star-formation rate (SFR), and hence the Lya luminosity, is proportional to the mass accretion rate rather than the total halo mass. This simple model is successful in reproducing many observable including LFs, stellar masses, SFRs, and clustering of Lya emitters from z~ 3 to z~ 7. Finally, using this model, I find that the mass accretion, and hence the star-formation in > 30% of Lya emitters at z~ 3 occur through major mergers, and this fraction increases to ~ 50% at z~7.
ContributorsShet Tilvi, Vithal (Author) / Malhotra, Sangeeta (Thesis advisor) / Rhoads, James (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Young, Patrick (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The first part of this dissertation presents the implementation of Bayesian statistics with galaxy surface luminosity (SL) prior probabilities to improve the ac- curacy of photometric redshifts. The addition of the SL prior probability helps break the degeneracy of spectro-photometric redshifts (SPZs) between low redshift 4000 A break galaxies and high redshift Lyman break galaxies which are mostly catas- trophic outliers. For a sample of 1138 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the GOODS North and South fields at z < 1.6, the application of the surface luminosity prior reduces the fraction of galaxies with redshift deviation sigma(z) > 0.2 from 15.0% to 10.4%. The second part of this dissertation presents the study of the chemical evolution of the star-forming galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) grism Survey effectively selects emission line galaxies (ELGs) to mAB ~ 27. Follow-up Magellan LDSS3+IMACS spectroscopy of the HST/ACS PEARS ELGs confirms an accuracy of sigma_z = 0.006 for the HST/ACS PEARS grism redshifts. The luminosity-metallicity (L-Z) relation and the mass-metallicity (M-Z) relation of the PEARS ELGs at z ~ 0.6 are offset by ~ - 0.8 dex in metallicity for a given rest-frame B absolute magnitude and stellar mass relative to the local relations from SDSS galaxies. The offsets in both relations are ~ - 0.4 dex larger than that given by other samples at same redshifts, which are demonstrated to be due to the selection of different physical properties of the PEARS ELGs: low metallicities, very blue colors, small sizes, compact disturbed morphologies, high SSFR > 10^-9 yr^-1 , and high gas fraction. The downsizing effect, the tidal interacting induced inflow of metal-poor gas, and the SNe driven galactic winds outflows, may account for the significant offset of the PEARS galaxies in the L-Z and the M-Z relations relative to the local relations. The detection of the emission lines of ELGs down to m ~ 26 mag in the HST/ACS PEARS + HST/WCF3 ERS NIR composit grism spectra enables to extend the study of the evolution of the L-Z and M-Z relations to 0.6 < z < 2.4.
ContributorsXia, Lifang (Author) / Malhotra, Sangeeta (Thesis advisor) / Rhoads, James (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / Young, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Green pea galaxies are a class of rare, compact starburst galaxies that have powerful optical emission line [OIII]$\lambda$5007. They are the best low-redshift analogs of high-redshift (z$>$2) Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs). They provide unique opportunities to study physical conditions in high-redshift LAEs in great detail. In this dissertation, a few physical properties of green peas are investigated. The first study in the dissertation presents star formation rate (SFR) surface density, thermal pressure in HII regions, and a correlation between them for 17 green peas and 19 Lyman break analogs, which are nearby analogs of high-redshift Lyman break galaxies. This correlation is consistent with that found from the star-forming galaxies at z $\sim$ 2.5. In the second study, a new large sample of 835 green peas in the redshift range z = 0.011 -- 0.411 are assembled from Data Release 13 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with the equivalent width of the line [OIII]$\lambda$5007 $>$ 300\AA\ or the equivalent width of the line H$\beta$ $>$ 100\AA. The size of this new sample is ten times that of the original 80 star-forming green pea sample. With reliable T$_e$-based gas-phase metallicity measurements for the 835 green peas, a new empirical calibration of R23 (defined as ([OIII]$\lambda$$\lambda$4959,5007 + [OII]$\lambda$$\lambda$3726,3729)/H$\beta$) for strong line emitters is then derived. The double-value degeneracy of the metallicity is broken for galaxies with large ionization parameter (which manifests as log([OIII]$\lambda$$\lambda$4959,5007/[OII]$\lambda$$\lambda$3726,3729) $\geq$ 0.6). This calibration offers a good way to estimate metallicities for extreme emission-line galaxies and high-redshift LAEs. The third study presents stellar mass measurements and the stellar mass-metallicity relation of 828 green peas from the second study. The stellar mass covers 6 orders of magnitude in the range 10$^{5}$ -- 10$^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$, with a median value of 10$^{8.8}$ M$_{\odot}$. The stellar mass-metallicity relation of green peas is flatter and displays about 0.2 - 0.5 dex offset to lower metallicities in the range of stellar mass higher than 10$^{8}$ M$_{\odot}$ compared to the local SDSS star-forming galaxies. A significant dependence of the stellar mass-metallicity relation on star formation rate is not found in this work.
ContributorsJiang, Tianxing (Author) / Malhotra, Sangeeta (Thesis advisor) / Rhoads, James E (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Borthakur, Sanchayeeta (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Active pixel sensors hold a lot of promise for space applications in star tracking because of their effectiveness against radiation, small size, and on-chip processing. The research focus is on documenting and validating ground test equipment for these types of sensors. Through demonstrating the utility of a commercial sensor, the research will be able to work on ensuring the accuracy of ground tests. This contribution allows for future research on improving active pixel sensor performance.
ContributorsDotson, Breydan Lane (Author) / White, Daniel (Thesis director) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
I test the hypothesis that galactic magnetic fields originate from regions of dense
star formation (Dahlem et al. 2006) by comparing maps of 120-240 MHz synchrotron emission and hydrogen alpha (Hα) emission of the tidally-interacting, edge-on, barred spiral galaxy UGC 9665. Synchrotron emission traces magnetic field strength to a rough first order, while Hα emission traces recent massive star formation. UGC 9665 was selected because it was included in the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) TwoMetre Sky Survey (LoTSS; Shimwell et al. (2017)) as well as the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA; Sanchez et al. (2012)). I generated vertical intensity profiles at several distances along the disk from the galactic center for synchrotron emission and Hα in order to measure how the intensity of each falls off with distance from the midplane. In addition to correlating the vertical profiles to see if there is a relationship between star formation and magnetic field strength, I fit the LOFAR vertical profiles to characteristic Gaussian and exponential functions given by Dumke et al. (1995). Fitting these equations have been shown to be good indicators of the main mode of cosmic ray transport, whether it is advection (exponential fit) or diffusion (Gaussian fit) (Heesen et al. 2016). Cosmic rays originate from supernova,
and core collapse supernovae occur in star forming regions, which also produce
advective winds, so I test the correlation between star-forming regions and advective regions as predicted by the Heesen et al. (2016) method. Similar studies should be conducted on different galaxies in the future in order to further test these hypotheses and how well LOFAR and CALIFA complement each other, which will be made possible by the full release of the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) (Shimwell et al. 2017).
star formation (Dahlem et al. 2006) by comparing maps of 120-240 MHz synchrotron emission and hydrogen alpha (Hα) emission of the tidally-interacting, edge-on, barred spiral galaxy UGC 9665. Synchrotron emission traces magnetic field strength to a rough first order, while Hα emission traces recent massive star formation. UGC 9665 was selected because it was included in the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) TwoMetre Sky Survey (LoTSS; Shimwell et al. (2017)) as well as the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA; Sanchez et al. (2012)). I generated vertical intensity profiles at several distances along the disk from the galactic center for synchrotron emission and Hα in order to measure how the intensity of each falls off with distance from the midplane. In addition to correlating the vertical profiles to see if there is a relationship between star formation and magnetic field strength, I fit the LOFAR vertical profiles to characteristic Gaussian and exponential functions given by Dumke et al. (1995). Fitting these equations have been shown to be good indicators of the main mode of cosmic ray transport, whether it is advection (exponential fit) or diffusion (Gaussian fit) (Heesen et al. 2016). Cosmic rays originate from supernova,
and core collapse supernovae occur in star forming regions, which also produce
advective winds, so I test the correlation between star-forming regions and advective regions as predicted by the Heesen et al. (2016) method. Similar studies should be conducted on different galaxies in the future in order to further test these hypotheses and how well LOFAR and CALIFA complement each other, which will be made possible by the full release of the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) (Shimwell et al. 2017).
ContributorsHuckabee, Gabriela R (Author) / Jansen, Rolf (Thesis director) / Windhorst, Rogier (Committee member) / Bowman, Judd (Committee member) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Both strong and weak gravitational lensing allow astronomers to calculate the mass distribution of the foreground lens by analysis of the distortion of the lensed light. This process is currently the most precise way to quantify the presence of dark matter in galaxies. In addition, strong gravitational lensing allows astronomers to observe directly the light from the background source, as it will be both magnified in brightness and easier to resolve. Current computer models can essentially "remove" the foreground galaxy/galaxies to isolate and reconstruct an image of the background source with a resolution greater than that observed without lensing. Both the measurement of dark matter within galaxies and the direct observation of lensed galaxies are goals for this project. This was done using LENSTOOL, a software package chosen for the project, and originally designed to perform such calculations efficiently. While neither goal was met in its entirety, this paper reflects the results of this project throughout the course of the past year.
ContributorsCompanik, Connor Matthew (Author) / Scowen, Paul (Thesis director) / Windhorst, Rogier (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Abstract Located in southeastern Arizona, the Large Binocular Telescope is a great local resource for ASU astronomy/cosmology researchers. As a ground-based observatory, the Large Binocular Telescope can effectively provide deep, complementary observations of science fields in the wavelength range of 3,500 to 10,000 Angstroms. This gives scientists a lot of opportunity for various science projects, which can lead to massive amounts of observations being taken by research schools with ties to the LBT. Such is the case with ASU, which has obtained over 30 hours of data in just the SDT Uspec filter on board the Large Binocular Camera (Blue) and much more time in other filters observing longer wavelengths. Because of this, there is a huge need for establishing a system that will allow the reduction of raw astronomical images from the LBT to be quickly, but accurately. This manuscript serves as a presentation of the work done over the 2015-2016 school year to establish a pipeline for reducing LBT raw science images as well as a guide for future undergraduates and graduates to reduce data on their own.
ContributorsVehonsky, Jacob Ryan (Author) / Windhorst, Rogier (Thesis director) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05