This award is funded under the Research in Undergraduate Institutions program. The research project is aimed at dwarf galaxies in the local group. The current measured population abundance of dwarf galaxies is less than what is predicted from the mass spectrum of cold-dark-matter halos. Theoretical explanations for this predict different shapes of the faint end of the luminosity function making this a discriminant between theories of galaxy formation. The Principal Investigator will carefully measure the membership of 15 poor clusters or groups up to a distance of ~260 million light years. He has developed new techniques and algorithms for rejecting background objects from photometry and template spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, reaching galaxies 1000 times fainter than the Milky Way over a large enough volume to establish a representative sample of the universe. The program began observations at the 4m telescope of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in April 2005 and at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in September 2005. This research will be of importance to the fields of galaxy evolution, structure formation and dark matter.
An important auxiliary program is being carried out by undergraduate and graduate students using a 0.9m telescope. Future observations will serve as the culminating experience for the next generation of students at the San Francisco State University, a predominantly undergraduate teaching university. This hands-on, collaborative research experience is an essential part of the university's astronomy program, which serves a diverse group of students aiming for careers in astronomy, public school teaching, and industry.
