T.K. Daisy Leung

Astronomy & Space Sciences

Overview

My research seeks to improve our current understanding of the environments and the physical mechanisms that trigger star-formation across cosmic time in order to attain a coherent picture on how galaxies and supermassive black holes evolve through the history of the universe.

Current studies find evidence that most galaxies undergo the transition from a “normal” star-forming phase into an AGN phase as they evolve. To examine this postulation, it is necessary to conduct detailed investigation of the environment to address the more fundamental questions, e.g., i) How much gas is available to fuel star-formation and AGN growth? ii) How do the gas excitation conditions in the interstellar medium (ISM) differ from “normal” star-forming galaxies to AGN host galaxies? iii) Does the presence of an AGN enhance or quench star-formation in its host galaxy? It is by answering these questions that we will be able to place different populations in an evolutionary context. I am thus an observationally-driven astronomer with a focus on utilizing measurements obtained with large radio and (sub-)millimeter wavelength interferometric telescopes to scrutinize the evolution of the gas and dust components in the interstellar medium of galaxies at high redshifts.

Research Focus

Advisor: Professor James Cordes

Galaxy evolution, ISM and star formation of high-redshift galaxies, radio & (sub-)millimeter astronomy. 

Publications

  • T. K. Daisy Leung, Andrea Pallottini, Andrea Ferrara & Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, "Dynamical Properties of Molecular Cloud Complexes in Galaxies at the Epoch of Reionization", 2019 ApJ to be submitted
  • T. K. Daisy Leung, C. C. Hayward, C. M. Casey, J. Staguhn, A. Kovacs & C. D. Dowell, "Constraining the Active Galactic Nucleus and Starburst Properties of the IR-luminous Quasar Host Galaxy APM 08279+5255 at z~4 with SOFIA", 2019 submitted to ApJ
  • Kevin C. Harrington, A. Vishwas, A. Weiss, B. Magnelli, L. Grassitelli, M. Zajacek, E. F. Jimenez-Andrade1, T. K. D. Leung et al., "“The Red Radio Ring”: Ionised and Molecular Gas in a Starburst/Active Galactic Nuclei at z ∼ 2.55", 2019 MNRAS to be submitted
  • T. K. Daisy Leung, D. A. Riechers, A. J. Baker, D. L. Clements, A. Cooray, R. J. Ivison, R. Neri, A. Omont, I. Perez-Fournon, D. Scott & J. L. Wardlow, "An Extended Rotating Starburst Disk in a Redshift 3 Massive Dusty Star-forming Galaxy", 2019 ApJ 871:85L
  • C. Gómez-Guijarro, D. A. Riechers, R. Pavesi, G. E. Magdis, T. K. Leung et al., "Confirming Herschel Candidate Protoclusters from ALMA/VLA CO Observations", 2019 872:117G
  • H. Nayyeri, A. Cooray, E. Jullo, D.A. Riechers, T.K.D. Leung et al., "Herschel and Hubble study of a lensed massive dusty starbursting galaxy at z~3", 2017 ApJ 844:82N
  • Dominik A. Riechers, T. K. D. Leung et al., "Rise of the Titans: A Dusty, Hyper-Luminous "870 µm Riser" Galaxy at z~6", 2017 ApJ 850:1
  • N. Patra, A. Parsons , D. DeBoer, N. Thyagarajan , A. Ewall-Wice , G. Hsyu , T. K. Daisy Leung et al., "The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array Dish III: measuring chromaticity of prototype element with reflectometry", 2018 Exp Astron 45:177
  • T. K. Daisy Leung & Dominik A. Riechers & Riccardo Pavesi, "Moleuclar gas kinematics and star formation properties of the strongly-lensed quasar host galaxy RXS J1131-1231", 2017 ApJ 836:180L
  • T. K. Daisy Leung & Dominik A. Riechers, "A massive molecular gas reservoir in the z=2.221 type-2 quasar host galaxy SMM J0939+8315 lensed by the radio galaxy 3C220.3", 2016 ApJ 818:196
  • Shane Bussmann, T.K. Daisy Leung & Alex Conley, "UVMCMCFIT", 2015, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.27357
  • Nipanjana Patra, Zaki Ali, Carina Cheng, Dave DeBoer, Gilbert Hsyu, Tsz Kuk Leung, Aaron Parsons, "HERA dish reflectometry memo"
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