Appenzeller High-Redshift Galaxies

Light from the Early Universe
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-3-540-75824-2
Verlag: Springer-Verlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 353 Seiten

The high-redshift galaxies became a distinct research ?eld during the ?nal decade of the20thcentury. AtthattimetheLyman-breaktechniquemadeitpossibletoidentify signi?cant samples of such objects, and the new generation of 8 to 10-m telescopes resulted in ?rst good spectroscopic data. Today the high-redshift galaxies have developed into one of the important topics of astrophysics, accounting for about 5-10% of the publications in the major scienti?c journals devoted to astronomy. Because high-redshift galaxies is a rapidly developing ?eld and since new results are published constantly, writing a book on this topic is challenging. On the other hand, in view of the large amount of individual results now in the literature, and in view of the still growing interest in this topic, it appears worthwhile to summarize and evaluate the available data and to provide an introduction for those who wish to enter this ?eld, or who, for various reasons, might be interested in its results. The end of the ?rst decade of the 21st century appears to be a good point in time to attempt such a summary. The current generation of ground-based 8 to 10-m - optical telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the most important large radio telescopes have by now been in operation since about one or two decades. Although these instruments will continue to produce important scienti?c results for some time to come, many of the initial programs exploiting their unique new possibilities have been completed.

Prof. Immo Appenzeller is the emeritus director of the Heidelberg Observatory (Landessternwarte Heidelberg). From 1994 - 1997 he served as General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union. He was PI or CO of various large national and international instrumentation and research projects. His current main research topics are very distant (young) galaxies, active galaxies and QSOs, massive luminous stars, cosmic X-ray sources, astronomical instrumentation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Appenzeller, Immo

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;6
2;Contents;9
3;Part I The Context;13
3.1;1 Introduction;14
3.1.1; The Relevance of Very Distant Galaxies;14
3.1.2; Space, Time, and Redshift;16
3.1.3; Historical Remarks;17
3.2;2 The Nearby Universe;22
3.2.1; Planets, Stars, and Black Holes;23
3.2.1.1; Planets;23
3.2.1.2; Stars;23
3.2.1.3; The Evolution of Low-Mass Stars;32
3.2.1.4; The Evolution and Fate of Massive Stars;33
3.2.1.5; Exploding Stars;34
3.2.1.6; Stellar-Mass Black Holes;39
3.2.2; Galaxies;41
3.2.2.1; Morphology, Classification, and Dynamics;43
3.2.2.2; Size, Luminosity, and Masses;49
3.2.2.3; Chemical Composition;52
3.2.2.4; The Stellar Content of Galaxies;53
3.2.2.5; The Interstellar Medium of Galaxies;58
3.2.2.6; Interstellar Cloud Collapse and Star Formation;61
3.2.2.7; Galactic Nuclei;67
3.2.2.8; Interactions Between Galaxies;72
3.2.3; Galaxy Clusters and Large-Scale Structure;74
3.2.4; The Local Intergalactic Medium;78
3.2.5; Dark Matter;80
3.2.6; Dark Energy;81
3.2.7; A Cosmic Inventory;83
3.3;3 The Past and the Future;84
3.3.1; The Expanding Universe;84
3.3.1.1; Basic Equations and Parameters;84
3.3.1.2; Properties of the Friedmann-Lemaître Models;88
3.3.1.3; Some Analytic Solutions;90
3.3.1.4; The Cosmic Expansion at Different Epochs;91
3.3.1.5; Astronomy in the Expanding Universe;93
3.3.2; The Formation and Evolution of Structure;97
3.3.2.1; The Origin of Structure;97
3.3.2.2; Modeling the Evolution of Structure;99
3.3.2.3; Observational Tests;108
3.3.3; The Formation of the First Stars and Galaxies;119
3.3.3.1; Evolution of the Dark-Matter Halos;119
3.3.3.2; Evolution of the Baryonic matter;122
3.3.4; The Cosmic Future;127
4;Part II Methods and Tools;129
4.1;4 Basic Techniques and Their Limitations;130
4.1.1; The Information Content of Light;131
4.1.2; Imaging and Photometry;132
4.1.2.1; Telescopes and Interferometers;132
4.1.2.2; Image Detectors;141
4.1.2.3; Image Reduction and Image Analysis;144
4.1.2.4; Calibrations, Units, and Sensitivities;148
4.1.3; Spectroscopy;155
4.1.3.1; Spectrographs;155
4.1.3.2; Deriving Intrinsic Luminosities and Spectra;158
4.1.4; Virtual Observatories and Archives;160
4.2;5 Finding Very Distant Galaxies;161
4.2.1; Identification Techniques for High-Redshift Objects;161
4.2.1.1; Spectroscopic Methods;161
4.2.1.2; Photometric Techniques;162
4.2.1.3; Identifications Using Emission Lines;165
4.2.2; Search Strategies;169
4.2.2.1; Large-Area Surveys;171
4.2.2.2; Medium Deep Surveys;173
4.2.2.3; Deep Fields;174
4.2.2.4; Searches Using ``Gravitational Telescopes'';178
4.3;6 Deriving Physical Parameters;182
4.3.1; Geometrical and Kinematical Properties;182
4.3.2; Redshifts and Distances;183
4.3.2.1; Measuring Redshifts;183
4.3.2.2; Distances;186
4.3.3; Deriving Galaxy Luminosities;187
4.3.3.1; The Basic Steps;187
4.3.3.2; Corrections for Dust Absorption;187
4.3.3.3; Luminosity Functions;189
4.3.4; Stellar Populations and Ages;190
4.3.5; Mass Estimates;194
4.3.6; Star-Formation Rates;194
4.3.7; Deriving the Chemical Composition;197
4.3.7.1; Abundances from H II Emission-Line Spectra;197
4.3.7.2; Abundances from the Integrated Stellar Spectra;200
4.3.8; Measuring Interstellar Gas and Dust Properties;203
4.3.8.1; Properties and Kinematics of the Gas;203
4.3.8.2; Deriving Dust Properties;205
4.3.9; Probing the Distant Intergalactic Medium;206
4.3.9.1; Light Attenuation;207
4.3.9.2; Line Profile Analysis;209
5;Part III Observational Results and Their Interpretation;210
5.1;7 Observed Properties of High-Redshift Galaxies;211
5.1.1; Starburst Galaxies;211
5.1.1.1; Samples of Distant Starburst Galaxies;213
5.1.1.2; Properties of UV-Continuum Selected Starburst Galaxies;216
5.1.1.3; Ly Emission Galaxies (LAEs);251
5.1.1.4; Dust-Obscured Starburst Galaxies;262
5.1.2; Passively Evolving High-Redshift Galaxies;264
5.1.2.1; Properties of the High-Redshift Passively Evolving Systems;265
5.1.2.2; The Space Density of Passively Evolving Galaxies;269
5.1.3; Quasar Host Galaxies and Radio Galaxies;269
5.1.4; The Host Galaxies of Distant Gamma-Ray Sources;272
5.2;8 The Space Distribution of High-Redshift Galaxies;275
5.2.1; The Galaxy Number Density as a Function of Distance;275
5.2.2; Statistics of Galaxy Positions;276
5.2.3; Progenitors of Galaxy Clusters at High Redshift;280
5.3;9 Interactions with the Intergalactic Medium;283
5.3.1; Properties of the High-Redshift IGM;283
5.3.1.1; The Intergalactic Gas After Recombination;283
5.3.1.2; The Ly Forest Absorbers;284
5.3.1.3; Hot IGM Plasma at High Redshift;287
5.3.2; Impact of the High-Redshift Galaxies on the IGM;288
5.3.2.1; Radiative Effects;288
5.3.2.2; Galactic Winds;293
5.3.2.3; The Chemical Enrichment of the IGM;294
5.3.3; Accretion of IGM Gas;294
5.3.4; Damped Ly Systems;296
5.4;10 Implications;298
5.4.1; Comparison of Observations and Theoretical Predictions;298
5.4.1.1; Galaxy Sizes as a Function of Redshift;299
5.4.1.2; The Growth of Galaxy Masses;300
5.4.1.3; The Early Chemical Evolution;301
5.4.1.4; Predicted and Observed Space Distribution;302
5.4.2; Constraints on the Beginning of Star Formation;303
5.4.3; Properties of the First Stars;304
5.4.4; The Passively Evolving High-Redshift Galaxies;306
5.4.5; Formation of the Supermassive Black Holes;308
5.4.6; The Progenitors of the Present-Day Galaxies;308
6;Part IV An Outlook to the Future;313
6.1;11 Ongoing Work;314
6.1.1; Enlarging the Data Base;314
6.1.2; Efforts to Derive More Accurate Physical Parameters;317
6.1.3; Theoretical Work;319
6.1.3.1; Improving the Spectral Synthesis Models;319
6.1.3.2; Physical Processes at the End of the Dark Age;320
6.2;12 Future Facilities and Their Opportunities;322
6.2.1; New Instrumentation;322
6.2.1.1; New Ground-Based Telescopes;322
6.2.1.2; New Space Instrumentation;327
6.2.2; New Observational Possibilities and Their Expected Yield;331
6.2.2.1; Sensitivity Gains;331
6.2.2.2; Extending the Redshift Range;332
6.2.2.3; Gains from the Improved Angular Resolution;332
6.2.3; The Long-Term Future;333
6.2.3.1; Medium and Long-Term Projects in Space;333
6.2.3.2; Advances in the Detector Technologies;334
7;References;335
8;Index;347