James D. Lowenthal

Associate Professor

Department of Astronomy
Smith College
Clark Science Center
McConnell Hall, Room 412
Northampton, MA 01063

Five Colleges Astronomy Department

Office telephone: (413)585-6995
Department FAX: (413)585-3786
james (at) ast.smith.edu

Academic Vita

B.S. Yale College 1986
Ph.D. University of Arizona 1991

RESEARCH INTERESTS

High Redshift Galaxies
Lyman Break Galaxies
Starburst Galaxies
MM and Submm Galaxies
Galaxy Formation and Evolution
QSO Absorption Line Systems
QSO Host Galaxies
Ultra-Faint Radio Sources

Northampton weather and almanac:

COURSES

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

H-alpha image of the well-known objects M81 and M82, a pair of interacting galaxies at redshift z=0.0 (less than 10 million light years away -- almost our back yard), taken with the KPNO Burrell-Schmidt telescope.

I-band image of a pair of interacting galaxies at redshift z=0.408 (about 4 billion light years away), taken at the 10-meter Keck telescope. Click here to see a spectrum.

Spectrum of the Coup Fourre galaxy, a Lyman-alpha galaxy at z=2.3 (about 12 billion light years away), from the Multiple Mirror Telescope.

RECENT PAPERS

Evidence for a Population of High-Redshift Submillimeter Galaxies from Interferometric Imaging: J. D. Younger et al; 2007, ApJ, in press
Measuring the Halo Mass of z=3 Damped Ly-alpha Absorbers from the Absorber-Galaxy Cross-correlation: N. Bouche, J. P. Gardner, D. H. Weinberg, N. Katz, R Dave, & J. D. Lowenthal; 2005, ApJ, 628, 89
The Star Formation Rate-Density Relationship at Redshift Three: N. Bouche & J. D. Lowenthal; 2005, ApJLett, 623, 75
The clustering of galaxies around three damped Ly-alpha absorbers at Redshift Three: N. Bouche & J. D. Lowenthal; 2004, ApJ, 609, 513
Clustering of galaxies at z=3 around the probable Damped Ly-alpha absorber towards QSO APM 08279+5255: N. Bouche & J.D. Lowenthal; 2003, ApJ, in press
The Morphology of 9 Radio-selected Faint Galaxies from deep HST Imaging: N.D. Roche, J.D. Lowenthal, & D.C. Koo; 2002, MNRAS, 337, 840.
Keck Spectroscopy and Imaging of Faint Galaxies Identifed as MicroJansky Radio Sources: N.D. Roche, J.D. Lowenthal, & D.C. Koo; 2002, MNRAS, 330, 307; Gzipped postscript images available at these links: Plate 1, Plate 2, Plate 3
H-alpha Imaging with HST+NICMOS of An Elusive Damped Ly-alpha Cloud at z=0.6: Bouche, N., Lowenthal, J.D., Charlton, J.C., Bershady, M.A., Churchill, C.W. and Steidel, C.C.; 2001, ApJ, 550, 585
Lyman-alpha Imaging of a Very Luminous z=2.3 Starburst Galaxy with WFPC2: Roche, N.D., Lowenthal, J.D. & Woodgate, B.; 2000, MNRAS, 317, 937.
Near-Infrared Galaxy Counts to J and K~24 as a Function of Image Size: Bershady, M. A., Lowenthal, J. D., and Koo, D. C.; 1998, ApJ, 505, 50
Far-Ultraviolet Spectra of Starburst Galaxies: Stellar Population and the Kinematics of the Interstellar Medium: Gonzalez Delgado, R. M., Leitherer, C., Heckman, T., Lowenthal, J.D., Ferguson, H.C., & Robert, C.; 1998, ApJ, 495, 698
Keck Spectroscopy of z~3 Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field: Lowenthal, J. D., Koo, D. C., Guzman, R., Gallego, J., Phillips, D., Faber, S. M. Vogt, N. P., Illingworth, G. D. & Gronwall, C.; 1997, ApJ, 481, 673; Go to this URL for retrieval options.; (See also the DEEP home page for more information.)
Imaging and Spectroscopy of Damped Lyman-alpha Quasi Stellar Object Absorption-Line Clouds: Lowenthal, J.D., Hogan, C.J., Green, R.F., Woodgate, B., Caulet, A., Brown, L. & Bechtold, J.B.
1995, ApJ, 451, 484
Also available: PostScript version
Imaging the Host Galaxies of High-Redshift Radio-Quiet QSOs: Lowenthal, J.D., Heckman, T. & Lehnert, M.
1995, ApJ, 439, 588

Here is a 3D view of Comet Hyakutake from 1996. (For help viewing these stereograms, see 3D instructions . If images are displayed above each other rather than side-by-side, try enlarging the WWW window.)

Some of my other interests besides astronomy

James D. Lowenthal
Five Colleges Astronomy Department

Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
james (at) ast.smith.edu