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09 February 2009
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Shelley Wright (UC Irvine)
"Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy of Galactic Disks, Mergers, and Weak
AGN in the Early Universe"
Dynamical studies of galaxies in the early universe have greatly benefited from recent
advances of diffraction-limited techniques on 8-10m telescopes using adaptive optics and
integral field spectroscopy. I will present results from on-going survey using Keck's latest
instrument OSIRIS and Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system to study the dynamics of z~1.6
star forming galaxies. I will describe how an integral field spectrograph spectrally dissects
the sky, and describe some of their current observational challenges. I will present H-alpha
kinematics for merger and disk candidates at z~1.6. All disk candidates' plateau velocities
and radii are consistent with the rotational properties of local spiral galaxies, and I will
discuss their mass distributions and significance in the galaxy formation framework. For a few
of these systems, [NII] emission is more concentrated than H-alpha emission, and peak [NII]/H-
alpha ratios are best explained by the presence of a weak AGN. These are the weakest known AGN
at high redshift, and I will discuss their potential impact on high-redshift metallicity
studies.
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