The gas and dust cycle in and out of galaxies
| Componente | Qualifica | Struttura | Categoria |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luca Graziani | Postdoc | INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma | Altro personale Sapienza o esterni |
| Mattia Mancini | dottorando | FISICA | Altro personale Sapienza o esterni |
| Roberto Maiolino | Professore | University of Cambridge (UK) | Altro personale Sapienza o esterni |
| Rosa Valiante | Ricercatore a tempo determinato | INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma | Altro personale Sapienza o esterni |
| Lucio Mayer | Professore | University of Zurich (CH) | Altro personale Sapienza o esterni |
| Stefano Carniani | Postdoc | University of Cambridge | Altro personale Sapienza o esterni |
In modern astrophysics, galaxies are described as complex ecosystems, whose fate is governed by the flow of gas from the large-scale cosmological environment, its conversion into stars and the ejection of part of the metal-enriched interstellar material.
These processes are known as the "galaxy baryon cycle" and the physics that regulates their efficiency still remains a critical problem in galaxy formation studies, particularly at early cosmic epochs, when star formation in galaxies is observed to occur at a much larger pace compared to the relatively quiet Milky Way galaxy at the present time.
The purpose of this research project is to advance our understanding of two key aspects of the problem:
(1) How do early galaxies acquire their gas content to fuel their star formation?
(2) When and how do galaxies get enriched with heavy elements and dust grains?
We plan to address these objectives by exploiting new and archival data acquired through the largest currently available telescope facilities on the ground and in space and running state-of-the-art hydro-dynamical simulations of galaxy growth at early cosmic times.