| Project Detail |
"Throughout the whole life of the universe only 4% of the baryons have been
converted into stars, implying that some physical processes must be responsible
for suppressing star formation in galaxies. Within this context, one of the
most hotly debated open questions is the identification of the process
responsible for quenching star formation in galaxies and transforming them into passive and quiescent (gas poor) systems. Theories of galaxy
formation have proposed various possible mechanisms, such as: gas
removal by powerful outflows or ram pressure stripping, heating
and photoionization of the interstellar medium, turbulent or
gravitational quenching, halting of the gas supply inflow (often referred to as ""strangulation""). The relevance and
relative role of these mechanisms (as a function of cosmic epoch,
galaxy properties and environment), especially at high redshift, are not yet understood because the constraints provided
by current observational data have not yet been able to discriminate
between different scenarios.
In the proposed project I will make use of some of the most advanced
observational facilities that will be available in the coming years
to tackle this major outstanding open issue. More specifically, I will
exploit the James Webb Space Telescope, MOONS (the next generation
multi-object spectrograph at the ESO-VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter
Array (ALMA).
Observing programs making use of these unique facilities
will provide an unprecedented amount of information, with unprecedented quality, that will enable
us to discriminate between various quenching and feedback processes proposed
by theories. More specifically, the aim of this project is to
identify and quantify the dominant quenching and feedback mechanisms
in galaxies as a function of redshift, as a function of galaxy properties
and as a function of environment. The groundbreaking results of this project will be
a benchmark for any model of galaxy evolution." |
