Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Joint Astrophysics Seminar

Studies of the Submm Galaxy Population with AzTEC

Grant Wilson

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Distant galaxies are the repository of most of the luminous matter in the Universe, and as such, they serve as important observables for many fundamental questions about its history, fate, and composition. In the last decade, sensitive observations at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths have revealed a population of optically obscured galaxies at high redshift with a number density which is 10-50 times higher than what is expected from a population of galaxies whose luminosity does not evolve with time. I will describe a series of surveys our team is carrying out in order to address key questions of hierarchical structure formation through this unique observable: 1) the largest survey of submillimeter galaxies to date made from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in 2005, 2) a survey of the submillimeter galaxy population in cluster environments to take place in 2007, and 3) the penultimate survey of submillimeter galaxies from the 50m diameter LMT starting in late 2008.