Galaxy formation and evolution 2010 - 2015
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Institute of Astronomy
Abstract
TThis programmatic five-year rolling grant application addresses one of the most important problems in extragalactic astronomy, the formation and evolution of galaxies. The task is one of the key goals in the current STFC Road Map and is a defining objective of virtually every national decadal survey world-wide. A full understanding of galaxy formation and evolution requires multiple lines of attack. Observations of the resolved stellar populations in the Milky Way and its Local Group companions provide a detailed fossil record of the dynamical assemblies of the galaxies, the formation of stars, and the buildup of heavy elements over a wide range of mass scales and initial conditions. At the other end of the scale, observations of distant galaxies spanning lookback times of up to 12 Gyr provide direct measurements of the evolution of galaxy populations and the buildup of stars and metals with cosmic time. Finally, measurements of the large-scale star formation and abundance properties of nearby galaxies form a vital astrophysical bridge between the studies of nearby resolved stellar populations and the distant high-redshift investigations, by allowing us to characterise the evolutionary properties of the Hubble sequence and the complex ``gastrophysical'' processes that regulate the accretion of gas and the formation of stars in galaxies. In this rolling grant application we propose a series of investigations that will advance our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution on all three fronts.
Organisations
Publications
Recio-Blanco A
(2014)
The Gaia -ESO Survey: the Galactic thick to thin disc transition
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cormier D
(2012)
The nature of the interstellar medium of the starburst low-metallicity galaxy Haro 11: a multi-phase model of the infrared emission
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Spina L
(2014)
The Gaia -ESO Survey: the first abundance determination of the pre-main-sequence cluster gamma Velorum
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Worley C
(2012)
The AMBRE Project: Stellar parameterisation of the ESO:FEROS archived spectra
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Van Leeuwen F
(2013)
The HIPPARCOS parallax for Polaris
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cortese L
(2012)
The dust scaling relations of the Herschel Reference Survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Westmoquette M
(2013)
Piecing together the puzzle of NGC 5253: abundances, kinematics and WR stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Piffl T
(2014)
The RAVE survey: the Galactic escape speed and the mass of the Milky Way
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Galliano F
(2011)
Non-standard grain properties, dark gas reservoir, and extended submillimeter excess, probed by Herschel in the Large Magellanic Cloud
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Donati P
(2014)
The Gaia -ESO Survey: Reevaluation of the parameters of the open cluster Trumpler 20 using photometry and spectroscopy
in Astronomy & Astrophysics