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
McConnachie AW
(2009)
The remnants of galaxy formation from a panoramic survey of the region around M31.
in Nature
Kornei K
(2010)
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STELLAR POPULATIONS AND Lya EMISSION IN LYMAN BREAK GALAXIES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Smith M
(2007)
The RAVE survey: constraining the local Galactic escape speed
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Zwitter T
(2008)
THE RADIAL VELOCITY EXPERIMENT (RAVE): SECOND DATA RELEASE
in The Astronomical Journal
Nestor D
(2008)
The quasar-frame velocity distribution of narrow C iv absorbers
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Swinbank A
(2008)
The properties of submm galaxies in hierarchical models
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
Niederste-Ostholt M
(2009)
The origin of Segue 1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Gilmore G
(2007)
The Observed Properties of Dark Matter on Small Spatial Scales
in The Astrophysical Journal