Bahram MobasherDistinguished ProfessorPhysics and Astronomy Dept mobasher@ucr.edu(951) 827-7190
Collaborative Research: First Light and Reionization with Lyman Alpha Galaxies
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AWARD NUMBER
007684-002
FUND NUMBER
33184
STATUS
Closed
AWARD TYPE
3-Grant
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AWARD EXECUTION DATE
8/13/2015
BEGIN DATE
8/15/2015
END DATE
7/31/2018
AWARD AMOUNT
$86,894
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Sponsor Information
SPONSOR AWARD NUMBER
SPONSOR
SPONSOR TYPE
FUNCTION
Organized Research
PROGRAM NAME
Proposal Information
PROPOSAL NUMBER
15050584
PROPOSAL TYPE
New
ACTIVITY TYPE
Basic Research
PI Information
PI
Mobasher, Bahram
PI TITLE
Other
PI DEPTARTMENT
Physics and Astronomy
PI COLLEGE/SCHOOL
College of Nat & Agr Sciences
CO PIs
Project Information
ABSTRACT
The team will use ground-based telesopes, kitted out with special purpose filters, to hunt for the most distant galaxies in the
Universe. These galaxies were the first to form and are probably responsible for radically transforming the matter in the young
Universe from a neutral to an ionized state. That state-altering transition sent the young Universe down a path that led to the rich panoply of galaxies, stars, and planets in today's mature Universe. The data acquired for the research will exhibit rich
patterns in the strength of the signal as a function of its electromagnetic frequency. As part of a novel outreach effort, the team will sonify these data, that is, convert them to audible frequencies and imprint them with rich patterns in the loudness of the signal. This allows the human ear to "detect" the most distant galaxies known. MP3 files will be developed and released along with explanatory material.
The aim of the project is to investigate when and how the early Universe became reionized, a key unsolved problem in cosmology. A
staged observational approach will be taken. In the first stage, data from narrow-band surveys will be acquired to find candidate
Lyman-alpha-emitting galaxies at redshifts of 7.7 and 8.8. In the second stage, spectroscopic follow-up of the candidates will be done
to confirm their high redshifts and form a luminosity function of Lyman-alpha-emitting galaxies. That function will yield constraints on
the degree of ionization of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at those redshifts. The team pioneered this luminosity-function approach, using
it to show for the first time that the IGM is largely ionized at a redshift of 6.5. The team's new work will place the first constrains
on the degree of ionization of the IGM at even more extreme redshifts. The spectroscopy will also be used to study other IGM
properties. The spectroscopic data acquired for the research will exhibit rich patterns in the strength of the signal as a function of its electromagnetic frequency. As part of a novel outreach effort, the team will sonify these data, that is, convert them to audible frequencies and imprint them with rich patterns in the loudness of the signal. This allows the human ear to emulate a spectrograph. MP3 files will be developed and released along with explanatory material.(Abstract from NSF)
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