Speaker: Ian McConachie
Institution: UW-Madison
Title: The Massive Ancient Galaxies At z>3 NEar-infrared Survey — Hunting Monster Galaxies in the Early Universe
Abstract: One of the most important mysteries in the field of galaxy evolution is when, where, and how the most massive galaxies formed and assembled their mass in the early Universe. Early ultra-massive galaxies (UMGs) place strong constraints on models for galaxy formation and evolution. Large near-infrared photometric surveys have revealed numerous UMG candidates at increasingly high redshifts through the past decade, but spectroscopic followup is necessary to confirm their nature. In this talk I will first provide an overview of the MAGAZ3NE spectroscopic survey, which targeted UMG candidates to characterize their stellar populations and their environments. I will then discuss the three protoclusters we discovered around UMGs and the insights they give to UMG evolution. Finally, I will present results from MAGAZ3NE’s spectroscopic campaign searching for the reddest, most massive UMG candidates and the subsequent implications for the extremely high-mass end of the stellar mass function.
Bio: Ian McConachie is an observational astronomer whose research seeks to connect the properties of high-redshift massive galaxies to their environments. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside where he worked with the MAGAZ3NE survey and is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he works with Professor Michael Maseda and the JWST survey RUBIES.
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