Related papers: Selection effects in high-redshift submillimeter s…
We illustrate the extraordinary discovery potential for extragalactic astrophysics of a far-IR/submm all-sky spectroscopic survey with a 3m-class space telescope. Spectroscopy provides both a 3D view of the Universe and allows us to take…
Achieving a precise understanding of galaxy formation in a cosmological context is one of the great challenges in theoretical astrophysics, due to the vast range of spatial scales involved in the relevant physical processes. Observations in…
We report the discovery of a cluster of galaxies via its weak gravitational lensing effect on background galaxies, the first spectroscopically confirmed cluster to be discovered through its gravitational effects rather than by its…
I set the stage for discussion of the stellar populations in interacting galaxies by looking back over the slow development of our understanding of these systems. From early anecdotal collections, to systematic cataloging, and finally to…
I review the statistical techniques needed to extract information about physical parameters of galaxies from their observed spectra. This is important given the sheer size of the next generation of large galaxy redshift surveys. Going to…
Given the importance of clusters to the fields of cosmology and galaxy evolution, it is critical to understand how the cluster detection process affects (biases) ones scientific conclusions derived from a given cluster sample. I review the…
In the past decade, our understanding of how stars and galaxies formed during the first 5 billion years after the Big Bang has been revolutionized by observations that leverage gravitational lensing by intervening masses, which act as…
Future prospects in observational galaxy evolution are reviewed from a personal perspective. New insights will especially come from high-redshift integral field kinematic data and similar low-redshift observations in very large and…
Observations of star-forming galaxies in the distant Universe (z > 2) are starting to confirm the importance of massive stars in shaping galaxy emission and evolution. Inevitably, these distant stellar populations are unresolved, and the…
Observational surveys of galaxies are not trivially related to single-epoch snapshots from computer simulations. Observationally, an increase in the distance along the line-of-sight corresponds to an earlier cosmic time at which the…
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 study of colliding galaxies has progressed rapidly in the last few years, driven by observations with powerful new ground and space-based instruments. These instruments have used for detailed studies of specific nearby systems,…
Galaxy clusters furnish extremely rich information on the contents and structure of our universe. The potential of galaxy cluster studies to constrain dark energy, for example, motivates a number of ambitious cluster surveys. Among these,…
I present various simulations of an on-going large sub-mm survey, SHADES, showing how constraints can be put on galaxy formation models and cosmology from this survey.
A variety of subtle, and not-so-subtle selection effects influence the interpretation of galaxy counts, sizes and redshift distributions in the Hubble Deep Field. Comparison of the different HDF catalogs available in the literature and on…
The recent detection of the Cosmic Infrared Background in FIRAS and DIRBE residuals, and the observations of IR/submm sources by the ISOPHOT and SCUBA instruments have shed new light on the optically dark side of galaxy formation. It turns…
One of the main problems of observational cosmology is to determine the range in which a reliable measurement of galaxy correlations is possible. This corresponds to determine the shape of the correlation function, its possible evolution…
The ESA cornerstone mission The Far-Infrared and Submillimetre Sapce Telescope (FIRST) has the ideal combination of sensitivity and angular resolving power to determine the bright counts of galaxies over a large area of sky in the…
New observations over the next few years of the emission of distant objects will help unfold the chapter in cosmic history around the era of the first galaxies. These observations will use the neutral hydrogen emission or absorption at a…
One of the most direct routes for investigating the geometry of the Universe is provided by the numbers of strongly magnified gravitationally lensed galaxies as compared with those that are either weakly magnified or de-magnified. In the…