Related papers: A dominant population of optically invisible massi…
Observations with WFC3/IR on the Hubble Space Telescope and the use of gravitational lensing techniques have facilitated the discovery of galaxies as far back as z ~ 10-12, a truly remarkable achievement. However, this rapid emergence of…
To study large-scale structure in the Universe a full census of the contents are required. This is even more important when the processes of galaxy formation are being investigated. In the last year the population of distant galaxies that…
Gravitational lensing studies suggest that the Universe may contain a population of dark galaxies; we investigate this intriguing possibility and propose a mechanism to explain their nature. In this mechanism a dark galaxy is formed with a…
The stellar mass assembly of massive galaxies in the first few billion years of cosmic history remains a central challenge in galaxy formation. Galaxies with $M_\star \gtrsim 10^{10}M_\odot$ observed at $z \gtrsim 4$ must grow rapidly under…
The earliest JWST observations have revealed an unexpected abundance of super-early ($z>10$), massive ($M_*\approx 10^9\, M_\odot$) galaxies at the bright-end ($M_{\rm UV}\approx -21$) of the ultraviolet luminosity function (UV LF). We…
Although the universe at redshifts greater than six represents only the first one billion years (<10%) of cosmic time, the dense nature of the early universe led to vigorous galaxy formation and evolution activity which we are only now…
Surveys with James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered candidate galaxies in the first 400 Myr of cosmic time. Preliminary indications have suggested these candidate galaxies may be more massive and abundant than previously thought.…
We review our current understanding of how the first galaxies formed at the end of the cosmic dark ages, a few 100 million years after the Big Bang. Modern large telescopes discovered galaxies at redshifts greater than seven, whereas…
I present a brief review of the stellar population properties of massive galaxies, focusing on early-type galaxies in particular, with emphasis on recent results from the ATLAS3D Survey. I discuss the occurrence of young stellar ages, cold…
Our understanding of the redshift $z>3$ galaxy population relies largely on samples selected using the popular "dropout" technique, typically consisting of UV-bright galaxies with blue colors and prominent Lyman breaks. As it is currently…
Massive galaxies in the early Universe have been shown to be forming stars at surprisingly high rates. Prominent examples are dust-obscured galaxies which are luminous when observed at sub-millimeter (sub-mm) wavelengths and which may be…
The history of galaxy formation via star formation and stellar mass assembly rates is now known with some certainty, yet the connection between high redshift and low redshift galaxy populations is not yet clear. By identifying and studying…
Using a sample of ~28,000 sources selected at 3.6-4.5 microns with Spitzer observations of the HDF-N, the CDF-S, and the Lockman Hole (surveyed area: ~664 arcmin^2), we study the evolution of the stellar mass content of the Universe at…
We spectroscopically identified 7 massive evolved galaxies with magnitudes 17.8<K<18.4 at 1.3<z<1.7 over an area of ~160 arcmin^2 of the MUNICS survey. Their rest-frame K-band absolute magnitudes are -26.8<M$_K<-26.1 (5L*<L_K<10L*) and the…
This paper reviews the dust content of the high redshift (z > 2) universe. Studies of the various "species" in the high-z "zoo" show that almost all have strong evidence for containing dust. The one exception, where the evidence is not yet…
Recent optical observations have led to a significant progress in our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. However, our view on the deep universe is currently limited to the starlight which directly escapes from high-redshift…
We combine deep UBVRIzJK photometry from the Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC) with redshifts from the COMBO-17 survey to perform a large-scale study of the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) properties of 674 high-redshift (0.5<z<1)…
Three billion years after the big bang (at redshift z=2), half of the most massive galaxies were already old, quiescent systems with little to no residual star formation and extremely compact with stellar mass densities at least an order of…
The global star formation rate in high redshift galaxies, based on optical surveys, shows a strong peak at a redshift of z=1.5, which implies that we have already seen most of the formation. High redshift galaxies may, however, emit most of…
A significant fraction of the energy emitted in the early Universe came from very luminous galaxies that are largely hidden at optical wavelengths (because of interstellar dust grains); this energy now forms part of the cosmic background…