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
Koch Andreas
(2007)
Chemical Abundances in the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Fellhauer M
(2007)
The tidal tails of NGC 5466
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lawrence A
(2007)
The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
De Jong R
(2007)
Stellar Populations across the NGC 4244 Truncated Galactic Disk
in The Astrophysical Journal
Zucker D
(2007)
Andromeda X, a New Dwarf Spheroidal Satellite of M31: Photometry
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ibata R
(2007)
The Haunted Halos of Andromeda and Triangulum: A Panorama of Galaxy Formation in Action
in The Astrophysical Journal
Law D
(2007)
Integral Field Spectroscopy of High-Redshift Star-forming Galaxies with Laser-guided Adaptive Optics: Evidence for Dispersion-dominated Kinematics
in The Astrophysical Journal
York B
(2007)
Discovery of 21-cm absorption in a zabs = 2.289 damped Lyman system towards TXS 0311+430: the first low spin temperature absorber at z > 1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Gilmore G
(2007)
The Observed Properties of Dark Matter on Small Spatial Scales
in The Astrophysical Journal
Belokurov V
(2007)
The Cosmic Horseshoe: Discovery of an Einstein Ring around a Giant Luminous Red Galaxy
in The Astrophysical Journal