PRIMEVAL GALAXIES IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE
When did the first galaxies form? How did they look like? What physical processes drove their evolution?
Observing distant galaxies, we peer back into the remote past and catch galaxy formation in action!
TRICEPS
Tracing Rotation with Ionized Carbon in Early Primeval Systems
TRICEPS is a top-priority survey for ALMA Cycle 7 led by myself. TRICEPS will observe the redsfhited [CII]-1900 GHz emission line of singly ionized Carbon in a sample of primeval galaxies at z=4-5. It will reach an unprecedented spatial resolution of about 500 parsecs, which will allow us to map the gas distribution, trace rotation curves, and investigate gas flows when the Universe was only ~1.5 Gyr old!
A MASSIVE STELLAR BULGE IN A REGULARLY ROTATING GALAXY 1.2 BILLION YEARS AFTER THE BIG BANG
Lelli F. et al. 2021
The young galaxy ALESS 073.1 at z=4.75 (when the Universe was only 1.2 Gyr old) displays several key features of more "mature" galaxies: a regularly rotating disk, a massive bulge, and possibly spiral arms! The image shows the distribution of cold gas (blue) and dust heated by young stars (red).
NEUTRAL VERSUS IONIZED GAS KINEMATICS AT Z ≃ 2.6: THE AGN-HOST STARBURST GALAXY PKS 0529-549
Lelli F. et al. 2018
In high-z galaxies, neutral and ionized gas may display very different kinematic behaviors. In the image, the different panels show the gas distribution (left) and kinematics (right) in the starburst galaxy PKS 0529-549 at z=2.6. The molecular gas (top panels) traces a rotating disk, while the ionized gas (bottom panels) is probably outflowing due to energetic feedback from a radio-loud active galactic nucleus .
