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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Belokurov V (2010) BIG FISH, LITTLE FISH: TWO NEW ULTRA-FAINT SATELLITES OF THE MILKY WAY in The Astrophysical Journal

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Austermann J (2010) AzTEC half square degree survey of the SHADES fields â?? I. Maps, catalogues and source counts in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Ural U (2010) Kinematic subpopulations in dwarf spheroidal galaxies in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Breddels M (2010) Distance determination for RAVE stars using stellar models in Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Macciò A (2010) Luminosity function and radial distribution of Milky Way satellites in a ?CDM Universe in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Pontzen A (2010) The nature of H i absorbers in gamma-ray burst afterglows: clues from hydrodynamic simulations in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Niederste-Ostholt M (2010) RE-ASSEMBLING THE SAGITTARIUS DWARF GALAXY in The Astrophysical Journal

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Pettini M (2010) CASSOWARY 20: a wide separation Einstein Cross identified with the X-shooter spectrograph in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Mackey A (2010) Deep Gemini/GMOS imaging of an extremely isolated globular cluster in the Local Group in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Peñarrubia J (2009) Tidal disruption of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies with triaxial dark matter haloes in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Wyrzykowski L (2009) The OGLE view of microlensing towards the Magellanic Clouds - I. A trickle of events in the OGLE-II LMC data in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Meurer G (2009) EVIDENCE FOR A NONUNIFORM INITIAL MASS FUNCTION IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE in The Astrophysical Journal

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Belokurov V (2009) Two new large-separation gravitational lenses from SDSS in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Walker M (2009) A UNIVERSAL MASS PROFILE FOR DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES? in The Astrophysical Journal

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Koch A (2009) A SPECTROSCOPIC CONFIRMATION OF THE BOOTES II DWARF SPHEROIDAL in The Astrophysical Journal

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Yanny B (2009) SEGUE: A SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF 240,000 STARS WITH g = 14-20 in The Astronomical Journal

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Pontzen A (2009) Dust biasing of damped Lyman alpha systems: a Bayesian analysis in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Quinn D (2009) A strip search for new very wide halo binaries A strip search for new very wide halo binaries in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Fellhauer M (2009) Merging time-scales of stellar subclumps in young star-forming regions in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Niederste-Ostholt M (2009) The origin of Segue 1 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Smith M (2009) Kinematics of SDSS subdwarfs: structure and substructure of the Milky Way halo in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Peñarrubia J (2009) THE SIGNATURE OF GALACTIC TIDES IN LOCAL GROUP DWARF SPHEROIDALS in The Astrophysical Journal

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Sen B (2009) Streaming motion in Leo I in The Annals of Applied Statistics

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Bresolin F (2009) THE FLAT OXYGEN ABUNDANCE GRADIENT IN THE EXTENDED DISK OF M83 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Evans N (2009) Cores and cusps in the dwarf spheroidals in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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Jorgenson R (2009) DIRECT EVIDENCE OF COLD GAS IN DLA 0812+32B in The Astrophysical Journal

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Huxor A (2009) THE DISCOVERY OF REMOTE GLOBULAR CLUSTERS IN M33 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Zych B (2009) Dust depletion, chemical uniformity and environment of Ca ii H&K quasar absorbers in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Donato F (2009) A constant dark matter halo surface density in galaxies in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Dutta P (2009) A study of interstellar medium of dwarf galaxies using H i power spectrum analysis in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Richardson J (2009) An HST /ACS view of the inhomogeneous outer halo of M31 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society