Observations using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) confirm astronomers’ expectation that early-Universe quasars formed in regions of space densely populated with companion galaxies. DECam’s exceptionally wide field of view and special filters played a crucial role in reaching this conclusion, and the observations reveal why previous studies seeking to characterize the density of early-Universe quasar neighborhoods have yielded conflicting results. In this podcast, Dr. Trysten Lambert discusses how DECam enabled astronomers to reach this conclusion.
Bios:
Rob Sparks is in the Communications, Education and Engagement group at NSF’s NOIRLab in Tucson, Arizona.
Dr. Trystan Lambert’s research career has focused exclusively on extragalactic observational astronomy, exploring both low and high redshift regimes. During his M.Sc. at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, he contributed to the completion of the 2MASS Redshift Survey and developed the galaxy group catalog. He then moved to Chile, where he pursued my Ph.D. at Universidad Diego Portales, studying galaxies and quasars in the epoch of reionization using ALMA and DECam.
Dr. Lambert is currently a Research Associate at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. He spends his days developing tools to identify large-scale structures in redshift surveys, particularly in the Wide Area VISTA Extragalactic Survey (WAVES). Identifying these large-scale structures allows us to map the distribution of dark matter in the local universe and provides a crucial test bed for current cosmological theories.
NOIRLab press release: https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2422/
Science News Press Release: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/quasar-zapping-star-formation
ICRAR press-release: https://www.icrar.org/quasar-neighbourhoods/
Original Paper: A lack of LAEs within 5Mpc of a luminous quasar in an overdensity at z=6.9: potential evidence of quasar negative feedback at protocluster scales: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06870
NOIRLab social media channels can be found at:
https://www.facebook.com/NOIRLabAstro
https://twitter.com/NOIRLabAstro
https://www.instagram.com/noirlabastro/
https://www.youtube.com/noirlabastro
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