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Title: Caught in the act - witnessing the formation of the most massive galaxies across cosmic time

 

Speaker: Dr. Chian-Chou Chen (ESO)

 

Date: February 22 at 15:30

 

Location: R521, General building II

 

Abstract:
More than half of the stellar mass in the local Universe are found in galaxies that are very massive yet have long ceased to form new stars. Exactly when and how did they form remain open questions and dominant uncertainties in the state-of-the-art galaxy formation models. Detailed archaeological type of studies have suggested that these galaxies were assembled in a very dramatic fashion, with most of their stellar mass formed very early on when the Univerve was about 20% of its age, within a striking short period of time corresponding to only around 10% of their lifetime. My main research interests have therefore been focused on uncovering these progenitors via extragalactic submillimeter surveys, and studying their evolution and physical properties using multi-wavelength data sets. In this talk, I will first give a brief summary of my past and current research achievements, followed by a plan in the next few years, in particular focusing on three novel methodologies in studying the environments and the ISM of these projenitors. Finally I will describe my long-term research aspiration, with the expectation of it being realized in around 10 years timescale.