Elizabeth Mills Group
Our group studies the physics and chemistry of gas in the most extreme environments in the nearby universe. We specialize in radio, millimeter, and infrared spectroscopy of galaxy centers, starbursts, and active supermassive black holes. We are committed to providing a work environment free of discrimination and harassment.
Research
Our research focuses on studying the properties of the gas in the center of our galaxy and other nearby galaxies. We observe spectral lines from a range of molecules and try to figure out how much gas is present, where it is located, how it is moving, and its temperature, density, and chemical composition. We work to answer questions like how black holes are fed and grow, how galaxies shut off star formation through feedback, and how unique gas properties in galaxy centers impact the physics of these processes. Our work is done primarily with ground-based telescopes, especially radio and millimeter interferometers like the VLA and ALMA.
Interstellar Medium
Star Formation: The transformation of interstellar gas into stars and clusters and its subsequent impact on the surrounding environment (Mills et al. 2011 (PDF); Mills et al. 2015 (PDF))
Molecular Excitation: Using the quantum properties of molecules for remote sensing of gas temperatures, densities, and radiation fields (Mills and Morris 2013 (PDF); Mills et al. 2018a (PDF))
Astrochemistry: The abundance, formation, and distribution of molecules, and the reactions that take place in interstellar gas. (Mills & Battersby 2017 (PDF); Mills et al. 2018b (PDF))
The Galactic Center
The Central Molecular Zone: Inner 300 parsecs of the Milky Way, and the home of unusually hot, dense, turbulent, and chemically-rich molecular gas (Mills 2017 (PDF))
The Circumnuclear Disk: Similar in size to an AGN torus, this 3 parsec-wide structure is the closest that molecular gas gets to the currently quiescent supermassive black hole (Mills et al. 2013 (PDF); Mills, Kaufman, and Togi 2017 (PDF))
Sgr B2 The most massive molecular cloud in the Galactic center, it is also the most chemically rich and hosts the most active star formation (Mills et al. 2018b (PDF); Mills et al. 2018c (PDF))
Nearby Spiral Galaxies
NGC 253: A barred spiral galaxy located 3.5 Mpc away, with a massive molecular outflow from a nuclear starburst producing 30x more new stars than the Milky Way center (Leroy et al. 2018 (PDF); Mills et al. 2021 (PDF); Levy et al. 2022 (PDF))
NGC 4945: A nearby (3.8 Mpc) Seyfert galaxy with both an active black hole and a starburst at its center (Emig et al. 2020 (PDF))
Circinus: A spiral galaxy at a distance of 4.2 Mpc from the Milky Way, hosting an active black hole that is believed to be the driving source of a molecular outflow (Zschaechner et al. 2018 (PDF))
Visuals
Galactic Center
Galactic Center Gas Flows Cartoon
The Central Molecular Zone
Meet the Neighbors Poster
Resources
These are some examples of my applications for postdoctoral fellowships, permanent positions, and grants for academic years between 2012-2013 and 2018-2019. Many of these were successful, but not all of them were! I believe that more open sharing of these sorts of resources is important to eliminating access barriers in our field. Please use and share with kindness!