My work
Since my very first project studying galaxies, I am fascinated by how these beautiful structures form and evolve. I think it is crucial to zoom in and out to different scales (ISM and CGM scales) and to use different pairs of eyes (multi-wavelength approach) to grasp the full picture and improve our global understanding of galaxy evolution.
Below you can find an overview of my work.
An HST-dark galaxy merger at cosmic noon revealed by ALMA
Galaxy mergers are commonly identified via visual inspection of rest-frame optical and NIR data, meaning all the components involved in the merger need to be visible. However, if one (or several) component happens to be heavily dust-obscured, the whole system can be misidentified. With this work, we primarly use ALMA data to highlight the importance of the multi-wavelength approach to properly identify galaxy mergers. We also investigate how such a complex environment impacts the properties of the individual components of the merger. You will find more details soon in Langan et al. (in prep).
The impact of gas flows on galaxy properties
According to models, galaxies evolve partly due to inflows of fresh gas coming from the CGM and outflows of gas being ejected out of galaxies and into the CGM. These gas flow events impact major galaxy properties such as their stellar mass, metallicity and star formation rate. As part of the MEGAFLOW survey, we can use MUSE and X-Shooter data to put constraints on models by looking at how the impact of gas flows is reflected on key scaling relations, i.e the main sequence and the (fundamental) mass-metallicity relation. More information can be found in Langan et al. (2023).
The mass-metallicity relation (MZR) at cosmic dawn
Star-forming galaxies show a tight correlation between their stellar mass and gas-phase metallicity: the MZR. This statement is correct in the local Universe, but what about in the very distant Universe, when the first galaxies formed? Thanks to the FirstLight simulations, focused on galaxy formation around the Epoch of Reionization (EoR, z > 6), we can take a look at the MZR during the EoR and assess the use of the R3 strong-line diagnostic to derive the metallicity with JWST. You can find more information on this work in Langan, Ceverino and Finlator (2020).
