Galaxies 09: Assembly, Gas Content and Star Formation History of Galaxies
James Condon
NRAO, CV
The Role of the EVLA and SKA in the ALMA Era
How can these very different telescopes best work together to study
star-forming galaxies? Continuum diagnostics of the star-formation
rate include synchrotron radiation at low frequencies, free-free
emission dominating near 100 GHz, and thermal dust emission at higher
frequencies. The EVLA will complement ALMA with comparable
sensitivity and angular resolution at frequencies up to 50 GHz,
mitigating the lamented loss of ALMA Band 1 for observing free-free
emission from HII regions, high-opacity dusty accretion disks, and
very large grains. The EVLA will also cover ground-state lines of
heavy molecules plus cool CO at all redshifts $z >$ 1.4. The very
sensitive (especially for surveys) SKA will detect synchrotron
emission and exploit the FIR/radio correlation to measure the
evolution of star-formation rates in normal galaxies at modest
redshifts, and possibly in luminous high-redshift galaxies, where
free-free emission is a faint but reliable indicator at the 10 GHz
upper frequency limit of the SKA. However, usable sensitivity of the
SKA may be limited by dynamic range, and the low-frequency
K-correction is unfavorable for discovering the first starburst
galaxies.
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