The Birth and Evolution of Galaxies in the Early Universe: The Need for Sensitive, Large-format Far-IR to Mm-Wave Detector Arrays

I will present the scientific motivation for and conceptual design of new spectroscopic instruments for astronomy in the far infrared through millimeter band. Broadband 2-D imaging data has now been obtained at these wavelengths over large regions of the sky at good sensitivity, revealing hundreds of thousands of individual galaxies from the first half of the universe’s history. Spectroscopic measurements are essential to measure each galaxy’s redshift and reveal its underlying energy sources. The coming generation of telescopes, both ground-based (CCAT) and spaceborne (SPICA), combined with ongoing developments in superconducting detector technology are enabling a revolution in this type of measurement. Spectroscopy of thousands to tens of thousands of galaxies will probe the epoch of reionization as the first galaxies began forming, the enrichment of the universe with heavy elements, and the subsequent evolution of the star-formation and black-hole accretion processes with cosmic time.

Date/Time: 
03/04/2012 - 16:00
Presenter: 
Matt Bradford
Location: 
125 Steele, Caltech