Wolfe The primary result from this research will be to determine the star formation history of normal galaxies from the present to redshifts around five. This has previously been done using the most luminous galaxies, but a new technique derives star formation rates (SFRs) for objects more representative of the protogalactic mass distribution, by observing damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs), a population of gaseous neutral hydrogen layers detected in absorption toward background quasars. This method will be used to consider a large number of issues, including how the SFR varies with redshift, how it compares to that derived from luminous galaxies, how the SFR depends on mass, neutral hydrogen column density, velocity width and metallicity, how it compares to theoretical predictions, whether star formation is confined to the central bulge or occurs throughout the absorbing gas, and whether DLAs are spatially correlated with luminous galaxies.
All results will end up in a generally accessible database, already in use by other researchers. The projects involve students at various levels, as well as junior researchers, including some from under-represented groups. ***
