Characterizing Gas Flow Pathways In High-resolution In the Local Universe

Galaxies continuously form stars over billions of years. To keep forming stars during these exceedingly long timescales, galaxies need a fresh supply of gas flowing right into their centers. Gas is the primordial building material of stars. This program will study how gas flows from outside galaxies into their inner regions, sustaining the process of star formation for billions of years. To achieve the main objectives of this program, the investigators will analyze data using several astronomical telescopes, among them the NSF-funded Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimeter Array. This program will support the research work of a graduate student. The PI will continue her work with the Prison Education Program (PEP) at Arizona State University and support Maricopa County prison educators in developing a curriculum for juvenile and adult education. Graduate student volunteers of the PEP Astro program will travel to the prisons to deliver lectures and conduct hands-on activities. The primary objective of this program is to characterize gas flows responsible for sustaining star-forming disks in the present epoch. The investigators of this program will identify gas flows into, through, and out of galaxy disks directly and infer gas accretion in the recent past via metallicity offsets of HII regions within the disk. This program will obtain high-resolution mapping of the cold neutral gas in the HI 21cm transition to trace the content and kinematics of the interstellar medium in 14 nearby (<100 Mpc) Milky Way mass spiral galaxies. These data will be combined with optical spectroscopic measurements of HII regions probing metallicity and dust content. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.