Thesis Topic: Surveying the multi-phase circumgalactic medium with the MUSE-ALMA Haloes project
Thesis Supervisor: Celine Peroux and Martin Zwaan
Abstract
The MUSE-ALMA Haloes project aims at quantifying the physical properties of the gaseous haloes of galaxies with a particular focus on the multi-phase nature of the baryons in the circumgalactic medium. The survey gathers a large obser-vational sample of absorption and emission data probing the atomic, molecular and ionised gas as well as stellar populations in a sample of galaxies. A key component of the MUSE-ALMA Haloes survey is therefore the multi-facility observational campaign conducted with VLT/MUSE, ALMA and HST.
The interactions between gas and galaxies are of paramount importance to our understanding of structure formation. A fundamental element of such baryon cycle studies is a complete census of the condensed matter (stars and cold gas) in both galaxies and their immediate surroundings, the so-called circum-galactic medium. Probes of the neutral atomic gas HI, ionised gas and stellar component have been assembled for of a sample of 48 galaxies. Without a quantitative description of the molecular phase however, one cannot reach a full census of their baryons. ALMA's unrivaled mm coverage and high sensitivity is ideal to characterise the CO emission of these z~0.5 HI-selected galaxies. We have gathered observations from an ALMA Large Program (PI: C. Peroux) to study the molecular component of the sample of galaxies. By measuring the molecular mass, kinematics, gas flows and gas fractions, the PhD project will: i) determine the role of molecular gas in HI-rich galaxies, ii) decipher the molecu-lar phase of gas flows from morpho-kinematics analyses, and iii) reach a com-plete census of the condensed baryons in the circumgalactic medium. These results will provide unique insights into the baryon cycle - a crucial component of galaxy formation.
The student will be part of the MUSE-ALMA Haloes team (http://www.eso.org/ <http://www.eso.org/>; ~cperoux/MUSE_ALMA_Haloes.html) with a huge accumulated experience on studies of galaxy evolution.