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Blank-field surveys with MAMBO

Blank-field surveys with the SCUBA and MAMBO bolometer arrays were able to resolve most of the COBE submm/mm background into individual sources, revealing a previously unknown population of intermediate- and high-redshift starbursts. These are thought to be spheroidal galaxies in their primary formation phase and are of paramount interest for understanding galaxy formation.

Dusty Quasars at High Redshift

During the past three winters observations with MAMBO have given a boost to studies of the relation between star formation and the formation of massive black holes. In collaboration with groups in Paris (Omont, Cox, Beelen), Great Britain (McMahon, Isaak), and the United States (Carilli, Fan, Djorgovski) we were able to conduct the first large millimeter continuum survey of QSOs at high redshifts. By now we have searched for mm emission toward over 140 QSOs at redshifts of 2 to 6, detecting over 40 of them. This provides the first significant sample on which we can study the relation between the optical, millimeter, and radio emission of the earliest active galaxies in the universe and thereby study the growth of massive black holes and spheroidal galaxies and bulges. We supplemented our MAMBO sample with observations with SCUBA at 850 μm, with the VLA to measure the radio continuum and CO line emission, and with the Plateau de Bure interferometer to search for CO line emission.

Millimeter Data Constrain GRB Models

Since 1999 we have carried out a program with MAMBO at the IRAM 30-m to detect Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows. Millimeter measurements provide vital constraints on the physical parameters of the explosion (total energy, density, magnetic field, geometry etc.) that are difficult or impossible to obtain at other wavelengths. The MAMBO observations of GRB991208 and GRB000301C resulted in constraints on the peak of the afterglow spectrum and enabled us to carry out global model fits to the entire broad band dataset (Berger et al. 2000; Galama et al. 2000). Such modelling has become an active area of research because it can track the hydrodynamic evolution of the blast wave, which is strongly influenced by the total energy in the shock, the geometry of the outflow, and the density structure of the medium into which it is expanding. GRB991208 and GRB000301C remain two of the highest quality datasets from which one can deduce these fundamental physical parameters.