Related papers: Down-sizing Forever
Rapid progress is now being made in the study of stellar populations of galaxies at large lookback times, both in dense clusters and the field. Dramatic transformations in star formation histories (even morphologies) appear to prevail among…
I review some recent progress made in our understanding of galaxy evolution and the cosmic history of star formation. Like bookends, the results obtained from deep ground-based spectroscopy and from the Hubble Deep Field imaging survey put…
We address the origin of the `downsizing' of elliptical galaxies, according to which the stars in more massive galaxies formed earlier and over a shorter period than those in less massive galaxies. We show that this could be the natural…
Galaxies represent the visible fabric of the Universe and there has been considerable progress recently in both observational and theoretical studies. The underlying goal is to understand the present-day diversity of galaxy forms, masses…
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within…
The last decade of research on elliptical galaxies has produced a wealth of new information concerning both their detailed structure and their global scaling relations. We review the old and new results about isophote shapes and…
If we are to develop a comprehensive and predictive theory of galaxy formation and evolution, it is essential that we obtain an accurate assessment of how and when galaxies assemble their stellar populations, and how this assembly varies…
Observations made using large ground-based and space-borne telescopes have probed cosmic history all the way from the present-day to a time when the Universe was less than a tenth of its present age. Earlier on lies the remaining frontier,…
The globally-averaged star formation rate in the Universe has been steadily declining since at least z~1. This may be due either to very local processes operating within the average galaxy, or to external, environmental effects.…
Using high resolution N-body simulations we have studied the formation and evolution of clusters and groups in a LCDM cosmological model. Groups of galaxies have been formed already before z=4. The total number of small bound systems and…
How do galaxies form and evolve? This is one of the most puzzling questions in astronomy. Galaxy assembly takes place throughout the entire history of the Universe, but our understanding of it is hampered by the unfortunate fact that we can…
The most successful cosmological models to date envision structure formation as a hierarchical process in which gravity is constantly drawing lumps of matter together to form increasingly larger structures. Clusters of galaxies currently…
The concept that stars form in the modern era began some 60 years ago with the key observation of expanding OB associations. Now we see that these associations are an intermediate scale in a cascade of hierarchical structures that begins on…
The morphologies of disk galaxies begin to deviate systematically from those of nearby galaxies at surprisingly low redshifts, possibly as low as z=0.3. This corresponds to a time ~3.5 Gyr in the past, which is only one quarter of the…
Using our recently improved understanding of star cluster physics, we are now within reach of answering a number of fundamental questions in contemporary astrophysics. Star cluster physics has immediate bearing on questions ranging from the…
We present a phenomenological approach to the study of disk galaxy evolution, based on i) a detailed modelling of the Milky Way (used as a prototype disk galaxy) and ii) an extension of the model to other disks through some simple scaling…
It is an obvious statement that all the galaxies we see today in and around our Local Group have been forming and evolving for a significant fraction of the age of the Universe. It is not a great leap of logic to further state that the…
Star formation in elliptical galaxies (Es) was and is mostly dominated by mergers and accretions with many suggestive examples seen among local galaxies. Present day star formation in Es is easily measurable in two thirds of Es and appears…
The observed morphological evolution since z ~ 0.5 within galaxy clusters provides evidence for a hierarchical universe. This evolution is driven by dynamical effects that operate within the cluster environment -- suppression of…
Cosmological discoveries over the past century have completely changed our picture of our place in the universe. New observations have a realistic chance of probing nature on heretofore unimaginable scales, and as a result are changing the…