Related papers: The First Galaxies: Clues from Element Abundances
The nature of the interaction between galaxies and the intergalactic medium (IGM) is one of the most fundamental problems in astrophysics. The accretion of gas onto galaxies provides fuel for star formation, while galactic winds transform…
The number density and clustering properties of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) are consistent with them being the central galaxies of the most massive dark halos present at z~3. This conclusion holds in all currently popular hierarchical…
Near-infrared observations of Lyman-break galaxies at redshifts z~3 are beginning to provide constraints on ages, star-formation histories, dust content, metallicities, and stellar masses. At present, uncertainties of more than an order of…
We report on the detection of four primordial galaxies candidates in the redshift range 4.55 < z < 4.76, as well as 4 other candidates in the range 4.12 < z < 4.32. These galaxies have been detected with the now common technique of the…
The 8m class telescopes in the ground-based optical astronomy together with help from the ultra-sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope have enabled us to observe forming galaxies beyond redshift $z=5$. In particular, more than twenty…
The Lyman-$\alpha$ line is expected to be strong in the presence of active star formation and the absence of dust, making it a good tool for finding chemically primitive galaxies in the early universe. We report on a new survey for high…
We study the evolution of Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) from z=5 to z=0 by tracing the merger trees of galaxies in a large-scale hydrodynamic simulation based on a Lambda cold dark matter model. In particular, we emphasize on the range of…
We investigate the metal contents of Lyman-alpha clouds at 2.2<z<3.6 with 10^13.5<N(HI)<10^14 cm-2 using high resolution, high S/N spectra of 9 quasars obtained with the 10m Keck I telescope. Using an composite spectrum analysis technique,…
We summarise the main results of recent work on the Lyman break galaxy population which takes advantage of newly commissioned instrumentation on the VLT and Keck telescopes to push the detection of these objects to new wavelengths and more…
The formation of the first galaxies is accompanied by large accretion flows and virialization shocks, during which the gas is shock-heated to temperatures of $\sim10^4$ K, leading to potentially strong fluxes in the Lyman alpha line.…
The transition between the nearly smooth initial state of the Universe and its clumpy state today occurred during the epoch when the first stars and low-luminosity quasars formed. For Cold Dark Matter cosmologies, the radiation produced by…
I introduce and review the data and analysis techniques used to measure abundances in the damped Lya systems, quasar absorption-line systems associated with galaxies in the early Universe. The observations and issues associated with their…
I summarize current knowledge of galaxy formation with emphasis on the initial conditions provided by the Lambda CDM cosmology, integral constraints from cosmological quantities, and the demographics of high-redshift protogalaxies. Tables…
Strong Lyman-alpha emission is a signpost of young stars and the absence of dust and thus indicates young galaxies. To find such a population of young galaxies at z=4.5 we started the Large Area Lyman Alpha survey (LALA). This survey…
The cosmic microwave background and the cosmic expansion can be interpreted as evidence that the Universe underwent an extremely hot and dense phase about 14 Gyr ago. The nucleosynthesis computations tell us that the Universe emerged from…
We provide a review of our current knowledge of galaxies throughout the first billion years of cosmic history. This field has undergone a transformation in the last two years following the launch of $\textit{JWST}$, and we aim to deliver an…
We argue that extreme metal-poor stars show a high dispersion in metallicity, because their abundances are the outcome of very few supernova events. Abundance anomalies should appear because of the discrete range of progenitor masses. There…
Chemical abundances provide important clues to the evolution of galaxies. Ionized nebulae are one of the main sources of chemical abundance measurements, especially in external galaxies. Studies of H II regions have shown that the overall…
We discuss recent advances in the study of dusty, massive galaxies at z>1 arising from the first extensive spectroscopic surveys.
We determine the ensemble properties of z~5 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) selected as V-band dropouts to i(AB)<26.3 in the Chandra Deep Field South using their rest-frame UV-to-visible SEDs. By matching the selection and performing the same…