Jeff Cooke

ARC Future Fellow - Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing
Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Mail number H30, Hawthorn, VIC 3122 Australia
office: +61 3 9214 5392 -- fax: +61 3 9214 8797 -- email: jcooke@astro.swin.edu.au

     
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Broadband selection of Lyman alpha emitters

Complementary to my work investigating Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) and their interactions, I developed a technique to pre-select LBGs with desired spectroscopic properties and Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) to high efficiency using broadband imaging alone (Cooke 2009b). This technique has enabled the clustering studies discussed above that would be nearly impossible otherwise given the large number of LBG spectra that would be required (~100,000). The number of LAEs detected using this technique is an order of magnitude larger than previously possible via narrow-band and blind spectroscopic surveys. In addition, the larger redshift path accessible enables the LAE correlation function and the LAE cross-correlation with LBGs to be measured to high precision.

Click here to access the ADS link displaying a list of articles describing this work and other research of mine.

 

 


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A false color (negative) image of interacting Lyman break galaxies (termed LBG-2377) comprise the brightest LBG at z ~ 3 known to date (Cooke et al. 2008). These "embryo" galaxies show evidence that they are merging and provide information on the physical properties and formation processes of galaxies about 11.4 billion years ago, when the universe was only 15% its current age.

LBGs, like those above, are visible because they are undergoing a burst of star formation. One cause of this burst may be the merging of galaxies, as is the case for the much closer galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 (image to the right) known as the Antennae Galaxies.


The Hubble Space Telescope

The Milky Way can be seen, as well as two of our closest companion galaxies, the Large and Small Magellenic Clouds, in this long-exposure image of the 4 meter telescope at the CTIO located in the Southern Hemisphere (Chile).
Work
 
  Astronomy 110
Physics 20A  
  Physics 7D
Curriculum Vitae
 
  Astro Grad Seminar
Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing
Swinburne
 
  Caltech Astronomy Department
Center for Cosmology
UC Irvine
 
  Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences
UC San Diego
W. M. Keck Observatory  
  Palomar Observatory