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THE HISTORY OF STAR FORMATION IN HII GALAXIES (Eduardo Telles)

Brief program summary and its significance:

H~II galaxies are dwarf galaxies whose luminosity is dominated by a
current burst of star formation. They are probably the youngest
galaxies that can be studied in any detail but the observations of
their underlying galaxies is hampered in the optical by the dominance
of young massive stars and ionised gas of the bursts, making
impossible to estimate the age of the underlying stellar population
either from optical or UV data.  With the use of NIR imaging the
contamination due to the emission from the hot young stars and ionised
gas of the burst will be minimized.  Furthermore, NIR (J, H, K)
colours can be used to segregate metallicity and age effects.  The J-K
colour shows an observable metallicity effect combined with little age
dependence, particularly for ages older than $0.5\times10^9$yr, while
the B-J colour provides a good age discriminator.  Thus, based on NIR
colours, it should be possible to distinguish galaxies composed of a
stellar population consisting mainly of young main-sequence stars from
those galaxies where there is an underlying population of old giants.
We propose to use IR to observe a sample of H~II galaxies with high
angular resolution in the near-infrared J, H and K bands. The colour
and luminosity profile information combined with our optical data and
comparison with new stellar evolutionary models will help to
re-address the question whether these systems are young (experiencing
their first burst of star formation) or old (having an old underlying
stellar population) and to determine the nature of the stellar
population.
                                                                                

Required minimum field of view (arcmin): ~ 3-6 '

Required psf (FWHM, profile details): ~ 0.5"

Typical target separation if multiple targets per exposure: 

Signal/noise required per resolution element: ~ 10

Typical exposure time for this S/N & lunar phase: ~ 40 min 

Anticipated photometric dynamic range required: 3-4 mags

What additional photometric calibrations are required?

If IR, is tip/tilt feasible (consider isoplanatic patch)? yes

Anticipated number of separate pointings to complete program:

Can this program execute in a queue? no

Anticipated post-focus instrumentation requirements (filters, gratings,
etc.): 

Required instruments (spectral R, filters, wavelength range): J, H, K

How soon might you need to revisit this target with another instrument? 
not immediately.

Why can't this program execute on the Blanco 4m? high spatial
resolution is needed.  The spatial distribution of the infra-red
emission, as compared to the optical, can indicate whether the
emission is mostly from young evolved stars or old red giants.

References (for non-mainstream applications): 
 Campbell,A.W., Terlevich,R., 1984, MNRAS, 211, 15
 Telles,E., 1995, PhD thesis, Univ. of Cambridge



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THE DYNAMICS OF HII GALAXIES and THE FAINT BLUE GALAXY CONNECTION
(Eduardo Telles)

Brief program summary and its significance:

The integrated H$\beta$ luminosities of giant HII regions and of HII
galaxies can be predicted with accuracy comparable to the
observational errors from the velocity widths of their emission-line
profiles.  In addition, they also present a relation between linear
size and their emission-line width.  We propose to observe a large
statistical sample of HII galaxies to determine their emission line
widths and luminosities (and independtly their sizes) and verify
whether the observed parametric relations for these young galaxies are
similar to those of evolved systems such as elliptical galaxies and
determine the source of their supersonic motions.  In addition, HII
galaxies have been recently identified as possible local counterparts
of the faint blue galaxies which produce the excess number density
observed at intermediate redshifts.  The calibration of the parametric
relations for HII galaxies can shed some light on the nature of these
faint blue galaxies and contribute to solving this which is one of the
puzzling question of modern cosmology.

Required minimum field of view (arcmin): 3-6 '

Required psf (FWHM, profile details): < 1"

Typical target separation if multiple targets per exposure: 

Signal/noise required per resolution element: 

Typical exposure time for this S/N & lunar phase: 60-90min

Anticipated photometric dynamic range required: 3-4 mag

What additional photometric calibrations are required?

If IR, is tip/tilt feasible (consider isoplanatic patch)?

Anticipated number of separate pointings to complete program:

Can this program execute in a queue? yes

Anticipated post-focus instrumentation requirements (filters, gratings,
etc.):  

Required instruments (spectral R, filters, wavelength range): 
spectral resolution better than 0.4 \AA at H$\beta$

How soon might you need to revisit this target with another instrument? 
not immediately

Why can't this program execute on the Blanco 4m? yes

References (for non-mainstream applications):

Koo,D.C.,Guzm\'an,R.,Faber,S.M.,Illingworth,G.D. \& Bershady,M.A.,
1995, ApJL, 440, L52
Telles E., 1995, \,``The Structure and Environment of HII
Galaxies\,'', Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Cambridge