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
Peñarrubia J
(2009)
Tidal disruption of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies with triaxial dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Belokurov V
(2009)
Two new large-separation gravitational lenses from SDSS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kendall T
(2007)
Two T dwarfs from the UKIDSS early data release
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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
Altavilla G
(2009)
TYPE Ia SNe ALONG REDSHIFT: THE $\mathcal {R}$(Si II) RATIO AND THE EXPANSION VELOCITIES IN INTERMEDIATE- z SUPERNOVAE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Trujillo I
(2009)
UNVEILING THE NATURE OF M94's (NGC4736) OUTER REGION: A PANCHROMATIC PERSPECTIVE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Alexander D
(2008)
WEIGHING THE BLACK HOLES IN z ˜ 2 SUBMILLIMETER-EMITTING GALAXIES HOSTING ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI
in The Astronomical Journal