Alberto Daniel Bolatto

About

Alberto Daniel Bolatto is an observational astronomer specializing in the study of galaxies and their evolution through cosmic time. His main research interests include star formation and its self-regulation, galaxy-scale outflows, the astrophysics of starbursts, and the structure and composition of the interstellar medium in galaxies, particularly its colder phases. Bolatto is a multi-wavelength observer utilizing imaging and spectroscopy from interferometers and space telescopes, with a preference for the spectrum from mid-infrared to millimeter and centimeter waves. He has a background in electrical engineering and instrumentation and has contributed to defining the upgrade plans for major radio observatories such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA 2030) and the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). Bolatto was born and raised in Uruguay, where he received his undergraduate degree from the Universidad de la República. He obtained his PhD from Boston University and has held positions as a postdoctoral researcher and staff scientist at the University of California at Berkeley before joining the University of Maryland.

Research topics

• Astrophysics
• Physics
• Astronomy
• Optics

Selected publications

• Cool outflows in galaxies and their implications

  The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review · 2020 · 450 citations

  DOI

• PHANGS-ALMA: Arcsecond CO(2-1) Imaging of Nearby Star-forming Galaxies

  The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · 2021 · 370 citations

  We present PHANGS-ALMA, the first survey to map CO J = 2 -> 1 line emission at similar to 1 '' similar to 100 pc spatial resolution from a representative sample of 90 nearby (d less than or similar to 20 Mpc) galaxies that lie on or near the z = 0 "main sequence" of star-forming galaxies. CO line emission traces the bulk distribution of molecular gas, which is the cold, star-forming phase of the interstellar medium. At the resolution achieved by PHANGS-ALMA, each beam reaches the size of…

  DOI

• The EDGE–CALIFA survey: central molecular gas depletion in AGN host galaxies – a smoking gun for quenching?

  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters · 2021 · 58 citations

  ABSTRACT Feedback from an active galactic nucleus (AGN) is often implicated as a mechanism that leads to the quenching of galactic star formation. However, AGN-driven quenching is challenging to reconcile with observations that AGN hosts tend to harbour equal (or even excess) amounts of gas compared with inactive galaxies of similar stellar mass. In this paper, we investigate whether AGN feedback happens on sub-galactic (kpc) scales, an effect that might be difficult to detect with global gas me…

  DOI

• The EDGE–CALIFA survey: the local and global relations between Σ*, ΣSFR, and Σmol that regulate star formation

  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · 2021 · 55 citations

  ABSTRACT We present a new characterization of the relations between star-formation rate, stellar mass, and molecular gas mass surface densities at different spatial scales across galaxies (from galaxy-wide to kpc scales). To do so, we make use of the largest sample combining spatially resolved spectroscopic information with CO observations, provided by the Extragalactic Database for Galaxy Evolution (EDGE)–Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, together with new single-dish CO ob…

  DOI

• Experiment for cryogenic large-aperture intensity mapping: instrument design

  Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and Systems · 2021 · 27 citations

  The experiment for cryogenic large-aperture intensity mapping (EXCLAIM) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to survey star formation in windows from the present to z = 3.5. During this time, the rate of star formation dropped dramatically, while dark matter continued to cluster. EXCLAIM maps the redshifted emission of singly ionized carbon lines and carbon monoxide using intensity mapping, which permits a blind and complete survey of emitting gas through statistics of cumulative brightness flu…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Changes in Molecular Gas and Galaxy Properties Over Time in the Era of Integral Field Unit Surveys

  NSF · $349k · 2016–2020

• The Role of Gas in the Evolution of Galaxies

  NSF · $500k · 2014–2018

• The Inner Workings of Starbursts and Their Winds

  NSF · $550k · 2021–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Adam K. Leroy

  304 shared

• F. Walter

  181 shared

• Karin Sandström

  171 shared

• Annie Hughes

  Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie

  146 shared

• J. Pety

  Laboratoire d’Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique et Atmosphères

  128 shared

• Erik Rosolowsky

  University of Alberta

  126 shared

• Éric Emsellem

  101 shared

• E. Schinnerer

  Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

  95 shared

Education

• PhD in Astronomy, Astronomy

  Boston University

  2001

Similar researchers at University of Maryland, College Park

• James M. Bauerh-58