| Project Detail |
Galaxy formation is driven by the flows of gas in and out of galaxies, which remain poorly understood. Galaxies grow and fuel their star formation through the accretion of new gas, while stellar and AGN activities eject copious amount of gas into the environment. The physics of and interplay between these phenomena (cosmic baryon cycle) are extremely complex, with the consequence that our current understanding of how and when gas flows take place and their impact on the life-cycle of galaxies is still patchy.
Hence, the FLOWS ERC project is designed to precisely determine the properties of gas flows in and out of galaxies across cosmic time and explain their role in galaxy formation and evolution. With FLOWS, we will conclusively determine how gas accretion from the environment takes place and how it changes with time. We will accurately measure the properties of galactic winds and fountains and establish their role in regulating the gas content of galaxies. We will build the next generation of predictive galaxy evolution models that will include, for the first time, fully constrained gas flows.
FLOWS will achieve these ambitious goals thanks to a unique and powerful combination of innovative data analysis and theoretical investigations. My team will study gas flows in and around galaxies using the full range of state-of-the-art data coming from ALMA, the SKA pathfinders, the VLT, the HST and JWST.
Most importantly, we will design new analysis techniques, including the first 3D code to model galactic winds directly in datacubes. Ground-breaking theoretical methods will allow us to combine the benefits of large-scale models with high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical simulations. This multifaceted approach, which is the key to crack the baryon cycle problem, derives its strength from the diverse research lines that I have pursued in the past years, which puts me in a unique position worldwide to the make the major leap forward that FLOWS promises to achieve. |
