Fernández-Ontiveros, J. A.; Armus, L.; Baes, M.; Bernard-Salas, J.; Bolatto, A. D.; Braine, J.; Ciesla, L.; De Looze, I.; Egami, E.; Fischer, J.; Giard, M.; González-Alfonso, E.; Granato, G. L.; Gruppioni, C.; Imanishi, M.; Ishihara, D.; Kaneda, H.; Madden, S.; Malkan, M.; Matsuhara, H.; Matsuura, M.; Nagao, T.; Najarro, F.; Nakagawa, T.; Onaka, T.; Oyabu, S.; Pereira-Santaella, M.; Pérez Fournon, I.; Roelfsema, P.; Santini, P.; Silva, L.; Smith, J.-D. T.; Spinoglio, L.; van der Tak, F.; Wada, T.; Wu, R.
Bibliographical reference
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Volume 34, id.e053 15 pp.
Description
The physical processes driving the chemical evolution of galaxies in the
last 11Gyr cannot be understood without directly probing the
dust-obscured phase of star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei.
This phase, hidden to optical tracers, represents the bulk of the star
formation and black hole accretion activity in galaxies at 1 < z <
3. Spectroscopic observations with a cryogenic infrared observatory like
SPICA, will be sensitive enough to peer through the dust-obscured
regions of galaxies and access the rest-frame mid- to far-infrared range
in galaxies at high-z. This wavelength range contains a unique suite of
spectral lines and dust features that serve as proxies for the
abundances of heavy elements and the dust composition, providing tracers
with a feeble response to both extinction and temperature. In this work,
we investigate how SPICA observations could be exploited to understand
key aspects in the chemical evolution of galaxies: the assembly of
nearby galaxies based on the spatial distribution of heavy element
abundances, the global content of metals in galaxies reaching the knee
of the luminosity function up to z 3, and the dust composition of
galaxies at high-z. Possible synergies with facilities available in the
late 2020s are also discussed.
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This IAC research group carries out several extragalactic projects in different spectral ranges, using space as well as ground-based telescopes, to study the cosmological evolution of galaxies and the origin of nuclear activity in active galaxies. The group is a member of the international consortium which built the SPIRE instrument for the
The Central PARSEC of Galaxies using High Spatial Resolution Techniques
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