I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Florida. My research is focused on the physical processes that drive evolution of galaxies across a wide range of mass. I use observations—from telescopes such as ALMA, the VLT, and NuSTAR—in concert with N-body simulations to understand the interplay between star formation, active galactic nuclei, and the interstellar medium in mergers. In particular, I study the molecular gas properties of extreme starbursts and the evolution of starburst and AGN activity as mergers progress.
Upcoming Conferences and Talks
- 07 September 2018 (Colloquium) “The Link Between Dense Gas Tracers and Nuclear Activity in Galaxies”, Núcleo de Astronomía, Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago, Chile).
- 26 October 2018 (Colloquium) “The Link Between Dense Gas Tracers and Nuclear Activity in Galaxies”, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY).
Latest News
- 11 July 2018: A preprint for “Modeling the Baryon Cycle in Low Mass Galaxy Encounters: the Case of NGC 4490 & NGC 4485” (Pearson+) has been released on the arXiv. In this paper we present the first dynamical model of a dwarf galaxy pair that is isolated from a more massive host. We show that we can explain the large hydrogen envelope of NGC 4485/90 as arising from a dynamical interaction and that the large envelope can potentially persist for several billion years. This has implications for the evolution of dwarf galaxy pairs, both isolated and around massive galaxies. The article has been submitted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
- 11 May 2018: A paper on the use of dust continuum emission as a tracer of the molecular mass in galaxies (Privon+) has been submitted to the American Astronomical Society Journals. A preprint is available and I welcome any comments on the manuscript. In this paper we use hydrodynamic cosmological zoom simulations to explore the link between optically thin dust continuum emission and the total molecular mass in galaxies. We find the dust emission is a good tracer of the molecular mass for massive galaxies, but the relation may break down due to metallicity-driven variations in the dust-to-gas ratio.
- 18 April 2018: “Two Separate Outflows in the Dual Supermassive Black Hole System NGC 6240” (Müller-Sánchez+) has been published in Nature. In this paper we use optical and near-infrared observations to separate the outflowing gas the center of the NGC 6240 galaxy merger into portions driven by star formation and portions driven by the actively accreting supermassive black holes. A preprint is also available.