Formation Of Sub-Structure In Luminous Sub-millimeter galaxies - FOSSILS -

ABSTRACT :
Our understanding of the cosmic star formation history and large-scale structure formation has advanced significantly over the past 20-30 years, owing to the availability of wide-field optical/NIR surveys and advanced high-precision structure formation simulations. However, very little is known regarding the detailed physical mechanisms of how galaxies acquire their gas and how they initiate and sustain the intense star formation activity needed to rapidly build the stellar mass. The Submillimeter Galaxy (SMG) population exhibits the highest SFR in the universe with the brightest ones exceeding 1000 Msun/yr, and offers a unique opportunity to understand the dominant physical mechanisms for triggering and sustaining the high SFR and rapid stellar mass build-up at z ≥ 2. The final goal of this project is to analyze a statistically significant sample of high resolution SMG images using ALMA/JWST and investigate the origin of the intense star formation activity seen in these early massive galaxies.