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
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
Meurer G
(2009)
EVIDENCE FOR A NONUNIFORM INITIAL MASS FUNCTION IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Banerji M
(2010)
Exploring the luminosity evolution and stellar mass assembly of 2SLAQ luminous red galaxies between redshifts 0.4 and 0.8
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Burningham B
(2008)
Exploring the substellar temperature regime down to ~550 K
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pinfield D
(2008)
Fifteen new T dwarfs discovered in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Begum A
(2008)
FIGGS: Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT Survey - overview, observations and first results
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Veltz L.
(2008)
Galactic kinematics with RAVE data -: I.: The distribution of stars towards the Galactic poles
in ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Bunker A.
(2007)
Galaxies at high redshift and reionization
in NUOVO CIMENTO DELLA SOCIETA ITALIANA DI FISICA B-BASIC TOPICS IN PHYSICS
Chen X
(2008)
Gaseous versus Stellar Velocity Dispersion in Emission-Line Galaxies
in Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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