Leiden University Student Repository

Witstok, Joris (2017)

MUSE observations of blank fields: a study of star formation properties in low-redshift galaxies

Bachelor thesis | Natuurkunde (BSc)

A catalogue of a total of 171 galaxies, supplemented with their redshift, is created for three deep, blank fields observed by MUSE. Furthermore, a study of the physical properties of 65 low-mass galaxies is performed for these fields. A model for the process of star formation in galaxies is discussed, and its parameters are constrained by observed data in the MUSE fields. Here, a relation between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (M_*) of SFR / M_* ~ M_*^a with a = 0.72 +0.11-0.13 is found, with a redshift evolution of SFR / (1 + z) ~ b with b = 5.58 +3.0-2.8. The relation has an intrinsic scatter of s_intr = 0.61 +0.15-0.13. Lastly, the calibration techniques of the MUSE instrument are investigated, showing that the instrument is quite sensible to temperature changes.

galaxies: star formation

galaxies: low-mass

galaxies: low-redshift

galaxy catalogue

VLT

MUSE

Author

Witstok, Joris

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Specialisation

Physics and Astronomy

Supervisors

Brinchmann, Jarle

ECTS Credits

3

Language

en