Monday, April 05, 2010 at 4:00 PM

JILA Auditorium

Elizabeth Barton, Univ California Irvine

"Star Formation and Gas in the Lowest Density Environments"

Abstract:

The morphology-density relation, or the tendency for dense environments to host early type galaxies with little star formation, extends not only to cluster galaxies, but to all environments including the "field." Thus, clues about the evolution of galaxies can be found in both clusters and in the simplest environments, small groupings. Using cosmological simulations as a guide, my collaborators and I have developed techniques to measure the properties of galaxies in very sparse systems. For the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, we develop an understanding of processes that remove fuel and suppress star formation in satellite galaxies in these systems, like quenching and "strangulation." Approaching this problem from a different angle, we also extend the technique of detecting absorption lines in the spectra of background quasars to study the relationship between low-density gas in the outer halos of galaxies and the environmental and star-forming properties of the galaxies themselves. I will end with a brief look at the role of the Thirty Meter Telescope project and its instrumentation in future studies of galaxy evolution.

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