Observability of Early Evolutionary Phases of Galaxies at mm Wavelengths

Abstract

Several lines of evidence and theoretical arguments suggest that a large fraction of starlight is absorbed by interstellar dust and re-radiated at far-IR wavelengths, particularly during early evolutionary phases of early type galaxies, which may even, under some circumstances, experience an optically thick phase. Therefore far-IR to mm observations are crucial to understand the galaxy evolution. The strong K-correction makes surveys at mm wavelengths ideally suited for studying high-$z$ galaxies. The broad redshift range covered by mm surveys at sub-mJy flux limits offers a good chance for gaining important information also on the geometry of the Universe.

Invited review at the ESO IRAM NFRA Onsala Workshop "Science with Large Millimeter Arrays", Muenchen; tex file, 7 pages, 3 fig.s available on request