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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Collins M (2009) A spectroscopic survey of EC4, an extended cluster in Andromeda's halo in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Maschietto F (2008) [O iii] emitters in the field of the MRC 0316-257 protocluster in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Kniazev A (2008) Spectroscopy of two PN candidates in IC 10 ? in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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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

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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

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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

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Verrier P (2007) Planetary stability zones in hierarchical triple star systems in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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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

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Kodama T (2007) The first appearance of the red sequence of galaxies in proto-clusters at 2 lsimzlsim 3 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Fellhauer M (2007) The tidal tails of NGC 5466 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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Becker A (2008) Two-Micron All-Sky Survey J01542930+0053266: a new eclipsing M dwarf binary system in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Hodgkin S (2009) The UKIRT wide field camera ZYJHK photometric system: calibration from 2MASS in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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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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Lawrence A (2007) The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Lodieu N (2009) Two distant brown dwarfs in the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Deep Extragalactic Survey Data Release 2 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Verrier P (2009) High-inclination planets and asteroids in multistellar systems 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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Mackey A (2008) Black holes and core expansion in massive star clusters in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Pettini M (2008) C, N, O abundances in the most metal-poor damped Lyman alpha systems in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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

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Werner M (2008) On multiple Einstein rings in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society