Galaxy formation and evolution 2010 - 2015

Lead Research Organisation: University of Cambridge
Department Name: Institute of Astronomy

Abstract

TThis programmatic five-year rolling grant application addresses one of the most important problems in extragalactic astronomy, the formation and evolution of galaxies. The task is one of the key goals in the current STFC Road Map and is a defining objective of virtually every national decadal survey world-wide. 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

10 25 50

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Worley C (2013) Medium-Resolution s -process Element Survey of 47 Tuc Giant Stars in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

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Wilson C (2013) COLD DUST BUT WARM GAS IN THE UNUSUAL ELLIPTICAL GALAXY NGC 4125 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Williams M (2011) THE DAWNING OF THE STREAM OF AQUARIUS IN RAVE in The Astrophysical Journal

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Williams M (2013) The wobbly Galaxy: kinematics north and south with RAVE red-clump giants in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Williams A (2014) Hamiltonians of spherical Galaxies in action-angle coordinates in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Wickramasinghe D (2010) Does GD 356 have a terrestrial planetary companion? in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Westmoquette M (2013) Piecing together the puzzle of NGC 5253: abundances, kinematics and WR stars in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Werk J (2010) OUTLYING H II REGIONS IN H I-SELECTED GALAXIES in The Astronomical Journal

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Watkins L (2013) A census of orbital properties of the M31 satellites in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Watkins L (2010) The masses of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies The masses of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Warren S (2011) THE FORMATION OF KILOPARSEC-SCALE H I HOLES IN DWARF GALAXIES in The Astrophysical Journal

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Warburton N (2012) Evolution of inspiral orbits around a Schwarzschild black hole in Physical Review D