Diagnosing the Formation of Elliptical Galaxies: Gregory Snyder

Date: 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 10:00am to 11:00am

Gregory Snyder

Wednesday, May 1, 10:00 AM

Phillips Auditorium

Title:  Diagnosing the Formation of Elliptical Galaxies

A challenge in extragalactic astronomy is that we cannot watch what happens to galaxies before and after they are observed.  In particular, it remains debated whether galaxy mergers or internal processes drive supermassive black hole growth, trigger luminous starbursts, and shape the population of elliptical galaxies we see today.  However, given increasingly available computer resources, it is now possible to predict how galaxies evolve according to a huge variety of observations.  With tools such as hydrodynamical simulations and dust radiative transfer, I examine the evolution of elliptical galaxies through three successive phases:  dust-obscured starburst, transition object, and red spheroid.  I build spatially and spectrally resolved models to analyze diagnostics of essential processes, finding support for stochastic elliptical formation driven by interactions.  To conclude, I outline an approach to build a “mock observatory” from large-volume cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, with which observations of all types can be brought to bear simultaneously to constrain the physics of galaxy formation.