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
Barnes L
(2010)
Faint extended Lya emission due to star formation at the centre of high column density QSO absorption systems Extended Lya emission from DLAs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bernardeau F
(2010)
Full-sky lensing shear at second order
in Physical Review D
Bennert V
(2010)
COSMIC EVOLUTION OF BLACK HOLES AND SPHEROIDS. IV. THE M BH - L sph RELATION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Breddels M
(2010)
Distance determination for RAVE stars using stellar models
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Marinucci A
(2010)
The X-ray spectral signatures from the complex circumnuclear regions in the Compton thick AGN NGC 424
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Matijevic G
(2010)
DOUBLE-LINED SPECTROSCOPIC BINARY STARS IN THE RAVE SURVEY
in The Astronomical Journal
Reis R
(2010)
Black hole accretion discs in the canonical low-hard state
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Caballero-García M
(2010)
X-ray reflection in a sample of X-ray bright ultraluminous X-ray sources
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Letarte B
(2010)
A high-resolution VLT/FLAMES study of individual stars in the centre of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Feroz F
(2010)
Classifying LISA gravitational wave burst signals using Bayesian evidence
in Classical and Quantum Gravity