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.
Organisations
Publications
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
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
Smith M
(2007)
Blending in gravitational microlensing experiments: source confusion and related systematics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
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
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
Cao C
(2008)
Mid-Infrared spectroscopic properties of ultra-luminous infrared quasars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Donato F
(2009)
A constant dark matter halo surface density in galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ivison R
(2007)
The SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey - III. Identification of radio and mid-infrared counterparts to submillimetre galaxies SHADES III
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Peroux C
(2007)
A homogeneous sample of sub-damped Lyman systems - IV. Global metallicity evolution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Quider A
(2010)
A study of interstellar gas and stars in the gravitationally lensed galaxy 'the Cosmic Eye' from rest-frame ultraviolet spectroscopy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Parmentier G
(2007)
The origin of the Gaussian initial mass function of old globular cluster systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Nestor D
(2008)
The quasar-frame velocity distribution of narrow C iv absorbers
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
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
Watkins L
(2009)
Substructure revealed by RR Lyraes in SDSS Stripe 82
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pontzen A
(2009)
Dust biasing of damped Lyman alpha systems: a Bayesian analysis
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Warren S
(2007)
A very cool brown dwarf in UKIDSS DR1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Casey C
(2009)
Constraining star formation and AGN in z ~ 2 massive galaxies using high-resolution MERLIN radio observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Richardson J
(2009)
An HST /ACS view of the inhomogeneous outer halo of M31
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Niederste-Ostholt M
(2009)
The origin of Segue 1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Vidrih S
(2007)
New ultracool and halo white dwarf candidates in SDSS Stripe 82
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shin E
(2008)
Lensing by binary galaxies modelled as isothermal spheres
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society