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Galaxy formation and evolution

Lead Research Organisation: University of Cambridge
Department Name: Institute of Astronomy

Abstract

This programmatic five-year rolling grant application addresses one of the most important problems in extragalactic astronomy, the formation and evolution of galaxies, one of the ``big questions'' in the current PPARC Road Map, and is a defining objective of virtually every national decadal survey of astronomy. 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.

Publications

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Fellhauer M (2008) Modelling the dynamical evolution of the Bootes dwarf spheroidal galaxy in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Ménard B (2008) Lensing, reddening and extinction effects of Mg ii absorbers from z = 0.4 to 2 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Verrier P (2008) HD 98800: a most unusual debris disc in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Fellhauer M (2008) The Cambridge N-Body Lectures

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Hao C (2008) Growth of Black Holes and Their Host Spheroids in (Sub)mm-loud High-Redshift QSOs in Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Chapman S (2008) The kinematic footprints of five stellar streams in Andromeda's halo ? in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Ellison S (2008) A search for damped Lyman systems towards radio-loud quasars I: the optical survey in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Munari U. (2008) Diffuse interstellar bands in RAVE survey spectra in ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

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Casetti-Dinescu D (2008) KINEMATICS OF STARS IN KAPTEYN SELECTED AREA 71: SAMPLING THE MONOCEROS AND SAGITTARIUS TIDAL STREAMS in The Astronomical Journal

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Chen X (2008) Gaseous versus Stellar Velocity Dispersion in Emission-Line Galaxies in Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics