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.
Organisations
Publications
Russell H
(2010)
Chandra observation of two shock fronts in the merging galaxy cluster Abell 2146 The merging cluster Abell 2146
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li Y
(2010)
SPITZER 70 µm EMISSION AS A STAR FORMATION RATE INDICATOR FOR SUB-GALACTIC REGIONS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ercolano B
(2010)
Metallicity, planet formation and disc lifetimes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tafelmeyer M
(2010)
Extremely metal-poor stars in classical dwarf spheroidal galaxies: Fornax, Sculptor, and Sextans
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Abbott B
(2010)
SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE BURSTS ASSOCIATED WITH GAMMA-RAY BURSTS USING DATA FROM LIGO SCIENCE RUN 5 AND VIRGO SCIENCE RUN 1
in The Astrophysical Journal
Minniti D
(2010)
VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV): The public ESO near-IR variability survey of the Milky Way
in New Astronomy
Potter A
(2010)
Magnetic field evolution of white dwarfs in strongly interacting binary star systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gair J
(2010)
LISA extreme-mass-ratio inspiral events as probes of the black hole mass function
in Physical Review D
Zoghbi A
(2010)
X-ray reprocessing and reverberation in the AGN 1H0707-495
Koposov S
(2010)
CONSTRAINING THE MILKY WAY POTENTIAL WITH A SIX-DIMENSIONAL PHASE-SPACE MAP OF THE GD-1 STELLAR STREAM
in The Astrophysical Journal