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

10 25 50

publication icon
Pontzen A (2007) Direct observational test rules out small Mg ii absorbers in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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

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

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

publication icon
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

publication icon
Siebert A (2008) Estimation of the tilt of the stellar velocity ellipsoid from RAVE and implications for mass models in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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

publication icon
Burningham B (2008) Exploring the substellar temperature regime down to ~550 K in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Pinfield D (2008) Fifteen new T dwarfs discovered in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Begum A (2008) FIGGS: Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT Survey - overview, observations and first results in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Bunker A. (2007) Galaxies at high redshift and reionization in NUOVO CIMENTO DELLA SOCIETA ITALIANA DI FISICA B-BASIC TOPICS IN PHYSICS

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

publication icon
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

publication icon
Dutta P (2008) H i power spectrum of the spiral galaxy NGC 628 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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

publication icon
Verrier P (2009) High-inclination planets and asteroids in multistellar systems in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
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

publication icon
Seabroke G (2008) Is the sky falling? Searching for stellar streams in the local Milky Way disc in the CORAVEL and RAVE surveys in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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

publication icon
Hewett P (2007) K-band imaging of strong Ca II-absorber host galaxies at z   1 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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

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

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

publication icon
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

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

publication icon
Walker M (2009) LEO V: SPECTROSCOPY OF A DISTANT AND DISTURBED SATELLITE in The Astrophysical Journal

publication icon
Begum A (2007) Life in the last lane: star formation and chemical evolution in an extremely gas rich dwarf NGC 3741 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Bramich D (2008) Light and motion in SDSS Stripe 82: the catalogues in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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

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

publication icon
Maddox N (2008) Luminous K -band selected quasars from UKIDSS in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Pettini M. (2007) Lyman break galaxies: A ten-year perspective in NUOVO CIMENTO DELLA SOCIETA ITALIANA DI FISICA B-GENERAL PHYSICS RELATIVITY ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS AND METHODS

publication icon
Nestor D (2008) Measurements of Ca ii absorption, metals and dust in a sample of z ? 1 DLAs and subDLAs ? in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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