Sam E. Cutler

Astronomy Ph.D. Student

Department of Astronomy

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Biography

I am an Astronomy PhD student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst advised by Kate Whitaker. I graduated with a BS in Physics from the University of Connecticut in 2019. In my research, I focus on the formation and evolution of galaxies via large photometric and spectroscopic surveys and galaxy morphology.

In the past, I have studied the relationship between galaxy structure, environment, and star formation through the creation of the COSMOS-DASH morphological catalog. I have also investigated the different formation histories of the inner and outer parts of typical star-forming galaxies near cosmic noon using the Prospector code. Recently, I have been working with photometry and source detection in HST (3D-DASH) and JWST (PRIMER and UNCOVER) surveys, assisting in the creation and development of the aperpy aperture photometry code and photometric catalogs for each of these programs. Using the rich JWST data from PRIMER and UNCOVER, I am currently investigating the formation low-mass quiescent galaxies via morphological analyses in NIRCam F150W and F444W.

Outside of research, I am an active member in science outreach with UMass Astronomy, where we hope to make science accessible to the larger community and encourage interest in astronomy.

Download my CV.

Interests

Galaxy Evolution and Formation
Galaxy Structure and Morphology
Catalogs and Surveys

Education

Ph.D. in Astrophysics
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (expected)
B.S. in Physics and Mathematics, 2019
University of Connecticut

Research

PRIMER

JWST/NIRCam photometric catalogs of the COSMOS and UDS blank fields

Two Classes of Quiescent Galaxies

JWST-based sizes and structural measurements for cosmic noon quiescent galaxies in the PRIMER and UNCOVER surveys

UNCOVER

JWST/NIRCam survey of the Abell 2744 lensing field and associated photometry catalogs

3D-DASH

Catalogs and projects related to the 3D-DASH survey, an HST WFC3/F160W survey covering the COSMOS field using the novel “Drift And SHift” technique

HLF GOODS-N Photometric Catalog

HST-only catalog in the GOODS-N field using improved imaging from the Hubble Legacy Field program

COSMOS-DASH

A structural catalog of morphologies in the COSMOS-DASH survey

Resolved SED fitting with Prospector

Star formation histories of the inner and outer components of main sequence galaxies using resolved SED fitting

Featured Publications

Sam E. Cutler, Katherine E. Whitaker, John R. Weaver, Bingjie Wang, Richard Pan, Rachel Bezanson, Lukas J. Furtak, Ivo Labbé, Joel Leja, Sedona H. Price, Yingjie Cheng, Maike Clausen, Fergus Cullen, Pratika Dayal, Anna de Graaff, Mark Dickinson, James S. Dunlop, Robert Feldmann, Marijn Franx, Mauro Giavalisco, Karl Glazebrook, Jenny E. Greene, Norman A. Grogin, Garth Illingworth, Anton M. Koekemoer, Vasily Kokorev, Danilo Marchesini, Michael V. Maseda, Tim B. Miller, Themiya Nanayakkara, Erica J. Nelson, David J. Setton, Heath Shipley, Katherine A. Suess

May 2024 The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Two Distinct Classes of Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Revealed by JWST PRIMER and UNCOVER

Using the JWST UNCOVER and PRIMER Treasury surveys, we measure the sizes of 332 7<logM<11 quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon (1<z<3). We find that there exist two distinct populations of quiescent galaxies at this epoch: a young, low-mass, disky population and an older, massive, spheroidal population, further highlighting the different mechanisms involved in galaxy evolution at low masses.

Sam E. Cutler, Mauro Giavalisco, Zhiyuan Ji, Yingjie Cheng

March 2023 The Astrophysical Journal

The Differential Assembly History of the Centers and Outskirts of Main Sequence Galaxies at $z∼2.3$

We present a study of spatially-resolved star formation histories for 60 z~2.3 main-sequence, star-forming galaxies. The results suggest that selecting star-forming galaxies at cosmic noon frequently includes systems in an “evolved” evolutionary phase where the centers have recently started a burst of star formation activity that will likely initiate inside-out quenching in the next several hundred million years.

Sam E. Cutler, Katherine E. Whitaker, Lamiya A. Mowla, Gabriel B. Brammer, Arjen van der Wel, Danilo Marchesini, Pieter G. van Dokkum, Ivelina G. Momcheva, Mimi Song, Mohammad Akhshik, Erica J. Nelson, Rachel Bezanson, Marijn Franx, Mariska Kriek, Daniel Lange-Vagle, Joel Leja, John W. MacKenty, Adam Muzzin, Heath Shipley

January 2022 The Astrophysical Journal

Diagnosing DASH: A Catalog of Structural Properties for the COSMOS-DASH Survey

We present an HST-resolution morphological catalog of over 50,000 galaxies in the COSMOS field utilizing the “Drift And SHift” (DASH) observing mode. We test the limits of DASH observations for determining morphologies of galaxies across a wide range of masses and redshifts.

Recent Publications

Total Refereed: 18
As First Author: 3

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Sam E. Cutler, Katherine E. Whitaker, John R. Weaver, Bingjie Wang, Richard Pan, Rachel Bezanson, Lukas J. Furtak, Ivo Labbé, Joel Leja, Sedona H. Price, Yingjie Cheng, Maike Clausen, Fergus Cullen, Pratika Dayal, Anna de Graaff, Mark Dickinson, James S. Dunlop, Robert Feldmann, Marijn Franx, Mauro Giavalisco, Karl Glazebrook, Jenny E. Greene, Norman A. Grogin, Garth Illingworth, Anton M. Koekemoer, Vasily Kokorev, Danilo Marchesini, Michael V. Maseda, Tim B. Miller, Themiya Nanayakkara, Erica J. Nelson, David J. Setton, Heath Shipley, Katherine A. Suess (2024). Two Distinct Classes of Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Revealed by JWST PRIMER and UNCOVER. The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Cite DOI arXiv

Maike Clausen, Katherine E. Whitaker, Ivelina Momcheva, Sam E. Cutler, Katherine A. Suess, John R. Weaver, Tim Miller, Arjen van der Wel, Stijn Wuyts, David Wake, Pieter van Dokkum, Rachel S. Bezanson, Gabriel Brammer, Marijn Franx, Erica J. Nelson, Natasha M. Foerster Schreiber (2024). 3D-DASH: The Evolution of Size, Shape, and Intrinsic Scatter in Populations of Young and Old Quiescent Galaxies at 0.5 < z < 3. arXiv e-prints.

Cite DOI arXiv

Mariska Kriek, Aliza G. Beverage, Sedona H. Price, Katherine A. Suess, Guillermo Barro, Rachel S. Bezanson, Charlie Conroy, Sam E. Cutler, Marijn Franx, Jamie Lin, Brian Lorenz, Yilun Ma, Ivelina G. Momcheva, Lamiya A. Mowla, Imad Pasha, Pieter van Dokkum, Katherine E. Whitaker (2024). The Heavy Metal Survey: Star Formation Constraints and Dynamical Masses of 21 Massive Quiescent Galaxies at z = 1.3–2.3. The Astrophysical Journal.

Cite DOI arXiv

Lukas J. Furtak, Ivo Labbé, Adi Zitrin, Jenny E. Greene, Pratika Dayal, Iryna Chemerynska, Vasily Kokorev, Tim B. Miller, Andy D. Goulding, Anna de Graaff, Rachel Bezanson, Gabriel B. Brammer, Sam E. Cutler, Joel Leja, Richard Pan, Sedona H. Price, Bingjie Wang, John R. Weaver, Katherine E. Whitaker, Hakim Atek, Ákos Bogdán, Stéphane Charlot, Emma Curtis-Lake, Pieter van Dokkum, Ryan Endsley, Robert Feldmann, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Seiji Fujimoto, Karl Glazebrook, Stephanie Juneau, Danilo Marchesini, Micheal V. Maseda, Erica Nelson, Pascal A. Oesch, Adèle Plat, David J. Setton, Daniel P. Stark, Christina C. Williams (2024). A high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in a lensed AGN in the early Universe. nat.

Cite DOI arXiv

Anna de Graaff, David J. Setton, Gabriel Brammer, Sam Cutler, Katherine A. Suess, Ivo Labbé, Joel Leja, Andrea Weibel, Michael V. Maseda, Katherine E. Whitaker, Rachel Bezanson, Leindert A. Boogaard, Nikko J. Cleri, Gabriella De Lucia, Marijn Franx, Jenny E. Greene, Michaela Hirschmann, Jorryt Matthee, Ian McConachie, Rohan P. Naidu, Pascal A. Oesch, Sedona H. Price, Hans-Walter Rix, Francesco Valentino, Bingjie Wang, Christina C. Williams (2024). Efficient formation of a massive quiescent galaxy at redshift 4.9. arXiv e-prints.

Cite DOI arXiv

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