RESEARCH
@The GothamWeb Lab
Understanding the evolution of dwarf galaxies
across cosmic environments:
From the field to the heart of Milky-Way mass halos
We use < 50 pc resolution"cosmological zoom" simulations to track how dwarf galaxies migrate in the multi-scale landscape of cosmic filaments. We explore a wide range of effects these filaments have on dwarf galaxies including: the generation of planes of dwarf satellites around Milky-Way analogs, the star formation histories of dwarfs, the make-up of intra-halo light in Milky-Way mass halos, etc...
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Graduate Student: Janvi Madhani (at JHU)
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LSSTC Research Fellow: Charlotte Olsen
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PostBacc AstroCom Fellow: Zara Sheemanto
Contact me if you are interested in an REU project on this topic.
The hydrodynamics of cosmic filaments plunging into galaxy clusters: impact on galaxies and detection
Using a mix of large simulated samples of clusters at medium resolution, small simulated samples at high-resolution and submillimeter observations, we study the interface where cosmic filaments plunge into the dense, hot intra-cluster medium of galaxy clusters. We investigate the hydrodynamic processes that may allow cooler gas streams along the spine of cosmic filaments to breach past the virial shock. We explore the impact of these streams on the quenching and dynamics of galaxies in their midst.
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Graduate Student: Sneha Nair
Contact me if you are interested in a Master/PhD project on this topic.
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AstroCom Fellow: Lyanis Feliciano
Undergraduate Intern: Ena Chia
SAMI & Hector:
Unveiling large scale kinematic correlations with Integral-field spectroscopy on the Anglo-Australian Telescope
Mixing large samples and high-spectral resolution, the SAMI survey (PI: Croom) and its ongoing successor Hector (PI: Bryant) allow exquisite IFU observations and enable emission-line science for large samples of galaxies across a wide range of environments. These provide an ideal observatory to study how galaxy properties such as their spin correlate with local filaments. We also explore the capabilities of neural networks to infer the properties of cosmic filaments from the galaxies they hosts.
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AstroCom Fellow: Daniel Gallego
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Contact me if you are interested in an REU project on this topic.
Mocking the Universe:
apples-to-apples predictions for SAMI, JWST, LSST and more...
Using home-brewed and public softwares, we produce synthetic images and spectra of simulated galaxies, as they would be observed by a wide range of surveys. This allows for direct comparisons between simulated and observed samples, enabling the joint exploration and detection of complex processes such as the role of clump migration in the formation and evolution of early disk galaxies.
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LSSTC Research Fellow: Charlotte Olsen
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Undergraduate Intern: Ben Tufeld (with Joel Primack at UCSC)
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