Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Joint Astrophysics Seminar

Luminous Infrared Galaxies with the Submillimeter Array:
Probing the Extremes of Star Formation

Christine Wilson

Department of Physics & Astronomy
McMaster University

Luminous and Ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) contain the most intense regions of star formation in the local universe. Because molecular gas is the fuel for current and future star formation, the physical properties and distribution of the warm, dense molecular gas are key components for understanding the processes and timescales controlling star formation in these merger and merger remnant galaxies. In this talk, I will present new results from a legacy project on the Submillimeter Array which is producing high resolution images of a representative sample of galaxies with log(L(FIR)) > 11.4 and D < 200 Mpc.