Andreas Faisst - Galaxies in the Early Universe

Abstract: Less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang, galaxies are rapidly increasing their stellar mass, dust, and metal content and show significantly different spatial and physical properties compared to galaxies at later times. I present how observations with Spitzer, the ALMA, and the HST help us to study and understand this important corner-stone phase of galaxy evolution. Specifically, Spitzer broad-band colors provide estimates of optical emission lines out to z = 6, which allow us to witness the rapid growth of these infant galaxies and to quantify their contribution to the reionization of hydrogen at z > 6. Our 70h ALMA program (ALPINE) measures C+ emission and far-IR continuum at 158μm of over 100 galaxies at z=4-6 and provides us with a deep insight into the dust and far-infrared properties of these galaxies.