Prof. Dimitra Rigopoulou

Abstract:

The various deep ISOCAM surveys revealed a new class of infrared luminous galaxies which are characterized by a high rate of evolution and are found at redshifts of zsimilar to1. Based on our near-infrared low-resolution spectroscopy we find that these ISOCAM galaxies are dust-enshrouded star-forming galaxies. Here we report on the first spatially resolved H. velocity profiles of ISOCAM galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field South. We find that some of these systems are in fact extremely massive galaxies. The galaxies show an offset of 1.6+/-0.3 magnitude in the rest frame B-band when compared to the local Tully-Fisher relation.

Abstract:

With the advent of efficient near-IR spectrometers on 10m-class telescopes, exploiting the new generation of low readout noise, large format detectors, OH avoidance and sub-arcsecond seeing, 1-2.4mum spectroscopy can now be exploited for detailed galaxy dynamics and for studies of high-z galaxies. In the following we present the results of three recent IR spectroscopy studies on the dynamics of ULIRG mergers, on super star clusters in the Antennae, and on the properties of the rotation curves of zsimilar to1 disk galaxies, carried out with ISAAC on the VLT, and NIRSPEC on the Keck.