Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Dust-obscured activity in high redshift galaxies

Alex Pope

University of Massachusetts

We now know that the majority of the star formation activity at high redshift occurs behind dust. Building on the sucess of the first extragalactic submm surveys with SCUBA, I will discuss recent observations with Spitzer and Herschel that have advanced our understanding of dust emission in high redshift galaxies; these observations can help to determine how intense star formation and AGN growth proceeds in the obscured galaxies that are orchestrating massive galaxy formation through major mergers and turbulent gas-rich disks. I will discuss whether there is evidence for evolution in dust properties suggesting different ISM conditions at high redshift. I'll discuss how future large dish (sub)millimeter facilities, such as the LMT and CCAT, will directly detect the majority of the sources contributing to the infrared background. Combined with ALMA, these future facilities will allow us to make a complete census of dust-obscured activity in the Universe.