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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Koch Andreas (2007) Chemical Abundances in the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy in Astronomische Nachrichten

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Nissen P (2007) Sulphur and zinc abundances in Galactic halo stars revisited in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Amanullah R. (2008) Light curves of five type Ia supernovae at intermediate redshift in ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

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

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Kendall T (2007) Two T dwarfs from the UKIDSS early data release in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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

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Bell Eric F. (2008) The accretion origin of the Milky Way's stellar halo in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

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Werk J. K. (2008) Isolated OB associations in stripped HI gas clouds in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

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Koposov S. (2008) The luminosity function of the Milky Way satellites in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

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Koch Andreas (2008) THE HIGHLY UNUSUAL CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE HERCULES DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS

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Belokurov V. (2008) LEO V: A COMPANION OF A COMPANION OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY? in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS

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Norris John E. (2008) THE ABUNDANCE SPREAD IN THE BOOTES I DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS

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

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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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Lee H (2007) Interstellar medium oxygen abundances of dwarf irregular galaxies in Centaurus A and nearby groups* in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Smith M (2007) Blending in gravitational microlensing experiments: source confusion and related systematics in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Letarte B (2009) A Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopic survey of the faint Mâ??31 satellites Andâ??XV and Andâ??XVI in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Page M (2007) The XMM-SSC survey of hard-spectrum XMM-Newton sources - I. Optically bright sources in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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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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Cao C (2008) Mid-Infrared spectroscopic properties of ultra-luminous infrared quasars 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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Peroux C (2007) A homogeneous sample of sub-damped Lyman   systems - IV. Global metallicity evolution in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Parmentier G (2007) The origin of the Gaussian initial mass function of old globular cluster systems in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Nestor D (2008) The quasar-frame velocity distribution of narrow C iv absorbers in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Belokurov V (2009) The discovery of Segue 2: a prototype of the population of satellites of satellites in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Ryan-Weber E (2008) The Local Group dwarf Leo T: H i on the brink of star formation H i in Leo T in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Watkins L (2009) Substructure revealed by RR Lyraes in SDSS Stripe 82 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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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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Warren S (2007) A very cool brown dwarf in UKIDSS DR1 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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Richardson J (2009) An HST /ACS view of the inhomogeneous outer halo of M31 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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Lodieu N (2007) Eight new T4.5-T7.5 dwarfs discovered in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey Data Release 1 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Vidrih S (2007) New ultracool and halo white dwarf candidates in SDSS Stripe 82 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Shin E (2008) Lensing by binary galaxies modelled as isothermal spheres in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society