Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Edinburgh

We propose a coherent, 5-year, rolling programme of research in Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology. This rolling grant consolidates all grant support in this area at IfA Edinburgh, and supports the work of a significantly expanded group, including 8 permanent academic staff. The group has expertise in all observation, computation and theory, and our proposed programme includes both extensive observational work, and substantial theoretical/computational elements, with a clear synergy between the two. Much of the programme is linked to the exploitation of major new facilities, surveys and simulations in which IfA astronomers have made a major intellectual investment, and which should come to fruition during the next 5 years. For convenience, we have subdivided the programme into two sections - Cosmology, and Galaxies - where under the latter heading we include work on AGN and black-hole growth, now viewed as an integral part of galaxy formation. Detailed progress reports and self contained PDRA programmes for 2006-2011 are provided in the appropriate appendices (Section 5 - Cosmology, and Section 5 - Galaxies). In total we are requesting support for 9 PDRAs, plus support for 0.5 of a PDRA to match funds which we aim to raise from non-astronomical applications of the MOPED algorithm.