An ALMA view of galaxies in the Epoch of Reionisation

In the past decade hundreds of galaxies have been identified in the Epoch of Reionisation, selected from their rest-frame UV light, using HST and ground-based optical/NIR observatories. Only a handful of these sources, however, have spectroscopic redshift determinations and we have limited understanding of their physical properties. ALMA is currently transforming this field by confirming the redshifts of galaxies out to redshift z=9 and providing the first view of the dust obscured star-formation, the kinematics of these sources, the cool gas traced by [CII] and highly ionised gas traced by [OIII]. In this PhD studentship Stephen Molyneux will study rest-frame UV selected galaxies in the first bilion years of cosmic time (z>6.5) with sub-millimetre observatories. Taking advantage of in-hand ALMA and NOEMA data-sets (PI: Smit) and the upcoming Cycle 7 ALMA large program REBELS, Stephen will lead various analyses, including line-scanning distant galaxies for redshift determinations, studying their structure and size and investigating the presence of extended low-luminosity gas associated with galactic feedback.