Grant Wilson
University of Massachusetts
Submillimeter Galaxies in the Age of LMT and ALMA
Massive starburst galaxies, also known as submillimeter galaxies, are
some of the most luminous objects in the Universe and account for at
least 30% of the millimeter-wavelength background radiation. Despite
having been first discovered over a decade ago, progress on
understanding the underlying physics behind their enormous energy
output and how that relates to the overall context of galaxy evolution
has been slow and, as of yet, unresolved. In this talk I will outline
significant new strides towards characterizing this population made
with the ensemble of 3 years of data from the AzTEC instrument - a
modest 1mm continuum camera. I will then spend the second half of the
talk describing the Large Millimeter Telescope - a 50m diameter
millimeter-wavelength dish being commissioned this year - and how
future observations with the LMT and, much later, with ALMA should
allow us to understand the role played by submillimeter galaxies in
the paradigm of galaxy formation and evolution.