Related papers: Understanding galaxy formation and evolution throu…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) was revolutionary because of the extraordinary breadth and ambition of its optical imaging and spectroscopy. We argue that a 'sub-millimeter SDSS' - a sensitive large-area imaging+spectroscopic survey in…
Observations at long wavelengths, in the wide interval from a few to 1000 micron, are essential to study diffuse media in galaxies, including all kinds of atomic, ionic and molecular gases and dust grains. Hence they are particularly suited…
Over the last decade optical spectroscopic surveys have characterized the low redshift galaxy population and uncovered populations of star-forming galaxies back to z ~ 7. This work has shown that the primary epoch of galaxy building and…
In these lectures I review observations of star-forming molecular clouds in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies to develop a physical intuition for understanding star formation in the local and high-redshift Universe. A lot of this material is…
This paper describes a key submillimetre survey which we are currently conducting to address some of the outstanding questions in cosmology - how, at what epoch and over what period of time did massive galaxies form at high redshift? A…
One of the major goals of observational cosmology is to acquire empirical data that has the diagnostic power to develop the theoretical modelling of the high-redshift universe, ultimately leading to an accurate understanding of the…
A cosmologically significant population of very luminous high-redshift galaxies has recently been discovered at submm wavelengths. Advances in submm detector technologies have opened this new window on the distant Universe. Here we discuss…
IR spectroscopy in the range 12-230 micron with the SPace IR telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) will reveal the physical processes that govern the formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes through cosmic time,…
There are thousands of confirmed detections of star forming galaxies at high redshift (z > 4). These observations rely primarily on the detection of the spectral Lyman Break and the Lyman-alpha emission line. Theoretical modelling of these…
Several lines of evidence and theoretical arguments suggest that a large fraction of starlight is absorbed by interstellar dust and re-radiated at far-IR wavelengths, particularly during early evolutionary phases of early type galaxies,…
The goal of searching back in cosmic time to find star formation during the epoch of reionization will soon be within reach. We assess the detectability of high-redshift galaxies by combining cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy…
We present the results of the first major systematic submillimetre survey of radio galaxies spanning the redshift range 1 < z < 5. The primary aim of this work is to elucidate the star-formation history of this sub-class of elliptical…
A full account of galaxy evolution in the context of LCDM cosmology requires measurements of the average star-formation rate (SFR) and cold gas abundance across cosmic time. Emission from the CO ladder traces cold gas, and [CII] fine…
Deep surveys in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter wavebands are revealing a new phase of galactic evolution hidden by dust. Observations with SCUBA on the JCMT show that 25% of the COBE/FIRAS background at 850 microns is being produced by…
New and forthcoming deep-wide surveys, from instruments like the HSC, LSST and EUCLID, are poised to revolutionize our understanding of galaxy evolution, by revealing aspects of galaxies that are largely invisible in past wide-area…
The large-scale overdensities of galaxies at z~2-7 known as protoclusters are believed to be the sites of cluster formation, and deep, wide survey projects such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and the Wide Field Infrared…
Galaxies form and evolve in the context of their local and large-scale environments. Their baryonic content that we observe with imaging and spectroscopy is intimately connected to the properties of their dark matter halos, and to their…
When and how did galaxies form and their metals accumulate? Over the last decade, this has moved from an archeological question to a live investigation: there is now a broad picture of the evolution of galaxies in dark matter halos: their…
High-redshift clusters of galaxies are amongst the largest cosmic structures. Their properties and evolution are key ingredients to our understanding of cosmology: to study the growth of structure from the inhomogeneities of the cosmic…
We have obtained spectroscopic redshifts using the Keck-I telescope for a sample of 73 submillimeter (submm) galaxies for which precise positions are available. The galaxies lie at redshifts out to z=3.6, with a median redshift of 2.2. The…