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Luminous, High Redshift, Obscured Galaxies and their Environments

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thesis
posted on 2020-07-14, 12:58 authored by Jordan I. Penney
This thesis presents observations of dusty, luminous, high redshift galaxies using mid Infra-Red and radio observations of samples of galaxies uncovered using the Wide-Field Infra-Red Survey Explorer (WISE) All-Sky Mission. Observations of these galaxies are critical to understanding the evolution of galaxies during the epoch of the peak in mergers and star formation activity. Two samples of galaxies are investigated in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.
The galaxies in Chapter 3 were selected using the WISE-All Sky mission, with additional constraints at 1:4 GHz (21 cm) to select for radio-intermediate emission. These galaxies are expected to have radio jets still embedded in their galactic hosts, and the sample within this thesis resides between redshifts of 1:3 < z < 2:9. To understand the nature of the environments that these powerful, luminous galaxies inhabit, the possibility of mergers between nearby galaxies is estimated using mid Infra-Red Spitzer observations over square 5:12 0 ? 5:12 0 ?elds. The galaxies in Chapter 4 were also discovered using the WISE-All Sky mission, but with no constraints on their radio power. These galaxies are among the most luminous known, with Infra-Red luminosities in excess of 1014 L?, placing them in the HyLIRG regime. These luminous, dusty galaxies are expected to contain extremely powerful AGN in their centres, heating the surrounding dust to temperatures & 60 K. Using ? 30 GHz observations of a sample of these galaxies, estimates of their radio properties can be determined to understand the level of free-free and synchrotron emission, and the rates of star formation in the galaxy hosts.

History

Supervisor(s)

Andrew Blain

Date of award

2020-04-03

Author affiliation

School of Physics and Astronomy

Awarding institution

University of Leicester

Qualification level

  • Doctoral

Qualification name

  • PhD

Language

en

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