Carl Ferkinhoff
Winona State University, MN·Astronomy & Astrophysics·Early-career
Galaxies grow partly by drawing in gas from the vast web of matter that surrounds them, known as the cosmic web. How this incoming gas mixes with what is already there is still unclear.
- Fields
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics
Engineering
- Topics
galaxy evolution
cosmic web
gas accretion
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Upgrade the ZEUS-2 spectrometer into the ZEUS-3D imaging spectrometer by adding an image slicer, a K-mirror that steadies the image and a direct-absorbing KID (superconducting detector) array, for use on the APEX telescope.
- Run a pilot survey with ZEUS-3D of far-infrared [CII] and [NII] emission lines in galaxies and their surrounding gas at redshift 1–2, to test how gas falling in from the cosmic web fuels galaxy growth.
- Measure far-infrared fine-structure lines in the ZINGRS galaxy sample at redshifts 1–3 with ZEUS, and combine them with JVLA radio continuum data to work out metallicity, interstellar gas and star populations.
- Trace how galaxies' element abundances, stars and gas changed during the era of peak star formation, with undergraduates taking part in the observations and hardware development.
More about the research
That mixing shapes how fast stars form, how chemical elements build up, and whether the giant black holes at galaxy centers become active. These questions matter most for the era about 8–11 billion years ago, when the universe formed stars at its fastest rate. Both of the lab's projects center on ZEUS, the Redshift(z) and Early Universe Spectrometer. ZEUS is an instrument that splits submillimeter light, a type of light between infrared and radio waves, into its component wavelengths to read the chemistry of distant galaxies.
Why it matters
The work could clarify how galaxies like the Milky Way were built, by showing how gas from intergalactic space fuels star formation and black hole activity. ZEUS-3D will give astronomers a unique instrument for the submillimeter sky and advance superconducting detector technology. Undergraduates gain hands-on instrument-building experience, and the Family Science program supports science learning for minority and lower-income families.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Clarence Chang
University of Chicago, IL·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Build COLIMATE, a 48-spectrometer millimeter-wave focal plane for the South Pole Telescope, with each pixel acting as its own on-chip spectrometer using superconducting kinetic inductance detectors.
Vivian U-
California Institute of Technology, CA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Map hot ionized and warm molecular gas in a representative sample of merging (U)LIRG galaxies using new Keck and JWST integral-field spectroscopy, which records a spectrum at every point of an image.
Caitlin Casey
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Characterize the thermal dust emission of galaxies across cosmic time using diverse far-infrared and millimeter (FIR/mm) observational datasets.
The school
Winona State University: 1 labs on PI Pages.
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