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
Dutta P
(2008)
H i power spectrum of the spiral galaxy NGC 628
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Verrier P
(2008)
HD 98800: a most unusual debris disc
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Verrier P
(2009)
High-inclination planets and asteroids in multistellar systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chen H
(2009)
HIGH-REDSHIFT STARBURSTING DWARF GALAXIES REVEALED BY ?-RAY BURST AFTERGLOWS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Smolcic V
(2007)
Improved Photometry of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Crowded-Field Images: Structure and Dark Matter Content in the Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Leo I
in The Astronomical Journal
Huang J
(2009)
INFRARED SPECTROGRAPH SPECTROSCOPY AND MULTI-WAVELENGTH STUDY OF LUMINOUS STAR-FORMING GALAXIES AT z ? 1.9
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
Chapman S
(2008)
Interferometric CO Observations of Submillimeter-faint, Radio-selected Starburst Galaxies at z ~ 2
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lee H
(2007)
Interstellar medium oxygen abundances of dwarf irregular galaxies in Centaurus A and nearby groups*
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Seabroke G
(2008)
Is the sky falling? Searching for stellar streams in the local Milky Way disc in the CORAVEL and RAVE surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society