|
|
Special Colloquium |
Dr. Abhisek Mohapatra
| SCHEDULED |
University of Cape Town
One of the fundamental questions in astrophysics is how galaxies form
and evolve across cosmic time. At the heart of this lies neutral
hydrogen (HI) — the raw material for star formation and a key
component of the baryon cycle. With powerful new radio telescopes like
MeerKAT, we can now push the frontier beyond the local Universe. In this
talk, I’ll introduce the LADUMA survey — Looking at the Distant
Universe with the MeerKAT Array — the deepest HI survey from the
MeerKAT. LADUMA focuses on a single field, with 300 hours of L-band
observations (probing HI to z < 0.6) and a planned 3000 hours in
UHF-band (extending to z ~ 1.4). From our first 127 hours of L-band
data, we have detected HI in about 240 galaxies out to redshift ~0.5.
These direct detections allow us to trace the distribution and evolution
of HI in galaxies over time. By combining LADUMA’s deep HI data with
rich multi-wavelength surveys, we’re beginning to piece together how
galaxies acquire, retain, and deplete their gas. I’ll share some of
our initial results and discuss what they reveal about the role of HI in
galaxy evolution, and how LADUMA is poised to transform our view of the
distant Universe.