Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies: From the Deepest to the Brightest - Dave Clements
When: Friday, November 7, 2025, 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Where: G. O. Jones, Room 610, Mile End
Speaker: Dave Clements (Imperial)
Title: Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies: From the Deepest to the Brightest
Abstract:
Dusty star forming galaxies (DSFGs) play a significant role in the star formation history of the universe but they are difficult at optical/NIR wavelengths even in the deepest images. The Herschel Space Observatory provided new insights into such sources, but confusion as a result of limited angular resolution and high source densities limits how faint its surveys, at 250, 350 and 500 microns, can go. Knowing this, most Herschel surveys did not probe fluxes significantly fainter than the confusion limit. There is one field, though, the Herschel Dark Field, where multiple images were taken over the life of the mission as part of calibration efforts. We have recently combined this data to produce the deepest far-IR image currently available, and likely to remain as such until the next generation of far-IR space telescopes arrive. I will present results on P(D) analysis to probe well below the classical confusion limit to provide insights into the sub-mJy far-IR population, and followup observations of this field with SCUBA2 combined with HST data, which provide new insights into higher redshift DSFGs than can be detected by Herschel. I will then present new results on magnetic fields in the nearest DSFG, Arp220, that suggest they may play a role in allowing these highly luminous, highly star forming systems can maintain their prodigious star formation rates.