Spectroscopic Probes of Reionization and Galaxy Evolution in the First Billion Years

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this project is to constrain the evolution of the fractional ionization of the Intergalactic Medium (IGM) at the end of the epoch of reionization, when the universe transitioned from largely neutral gas to largely ionized gas due to the radiation from newly formed stars and quasars. Broader impacts of the work include research training of graduate students and a postdoc, and outreach via creation of a new teacher workshop at the McDonald Observatory which will bring about 15 secondary school teachers into a research environment, and will provide them with the skills to bring this research into their classroom. The principle investigator and his group will also share their research with the general public by creating three StarDate radio programs. Optical spectral line observations of bright high redshift galaxies in the redshift range 6 < z < 8 will be conducted using the MOSFIRE and DEIMOS spectrographs on the Keck 10m optical telescopes. In the millimeter range, ALMA will be used to observe emission lines from ionized carbon.