Related papers: Aspects of Galaxy Formation
Theories of how galaxies, the fundamental constituents of large-scale structure, form and evolve have undergone a dramatic paradigm shift in the last few decades. Earlier views were of rapid, early collapse and formation of basic…
I discuss how spectroscopy of extragalactic globular clusters provides a powerful probe of the formation history and mass distribution of galaxies. One critical area is spectroscopy of objects which have been identified as candidate young…
The power spectrum of density fluctuations measured from galaxy redshift surveys provides important constraints on models for the formation of large-scale structure. I present new results for a redshift sample of 15,000 galaxies, and review…
The currently standard theory of cosmic structure formation posits that the present-day clumpy appearance of the universe developed through gravitational amplification of the matter density fluctuations that are generated in the very early…
Distant clusters of galaxies provide a powerful method to study the formation and evolution of galaxies, and large scale structure of the Universe. However, the number of known clusters at high redshift (z> 0.5) is still very reduced. As a…
In this paper we review the present status and implications of H-alpha surveys at various redshifts. With the advent of sensitive wide-format near-infrared detectors on large telescopes, deep and extensive H-alpha surveys are now feasible…
The redshift distribution of galaxy lenses in known gravitational lens systems provides a powerful test that can potentially discriminate amongst cosmological models. However, applications of this elegant test have been curtailed by two…
Theoretical galaxy formation models are an established and powerful tool for interpreting the astrophysical significance of observational data, particularly galaxy surveys. Such models have been utilised with great success by optical…
The resolved stellar populations of local galaxies, from which it is possible to derive complete star formation and chemical enrichment histories, provide an important way to study galaxy formation and evolution that is complementary to…
The epoch of galaxy assembly from 2<=z<=4 marks a critical stage during the evolution of today's galaxy population. During this period the star-formation activity in the Universe was at its peak level, and the structural patterns observed…
Galaxies above redshift 1 can be very clumpy, with irregular morphologies dominated by star complexes as large as 2 kpc and as massive as a few 10^8 or 10^9 Mo. Their co-moving densities and rapid evolution suggest that most present-day…
Galaxy-scale strong lensing is a powerful tool in Astrophysics and Cosmology, enabling studies of massive galaxies' internal structure, their formation and evolution, stellar initial mass function, and cosmological parameters. In this…
We review progress over the past decade in observations of large-scale star formation, with a focus on the interface between extragalactic and Galactic studies. Methods of measuring gas contents and star formation rates are discussed, and…
Clusters of galaxies at high redshift (z>1) are vitally important to understand the evolution of the large scale structure of the Universe, the processes shaping galaxy populations and the cycle of the cosmic baryons, and to constrain…
Thick disks appear to be common in external large spiral galaxies and our own Milky Way also hosts one. The existence of a thick disk is possibly directly linked to the formation history of the host galaxy and if its properties is known it…
The morphology of a galaxy has been shown to encode the evolutionary history and correlates strongly with physical properties such as stellar mass, star formation rates and past merger events. While the majority of galaxies in the local…
Over the last decade observations at submillimetre (submm) and millimetre (mm) wavelengths, with their unique ability to trace molecular gas and dust, have attained a central role in our exploration of galaxies at all redshifts. Due to the…
Near-infrared surveys provide one of the best opportunities to investigate the cosmic evolution of galaxies and their mass assembly. We briefly review the main results obtained so far with the K20 and other recent near-IR surveys on the…
We present the first results of an ongoing spectroscopic survey of galaxies selected in the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV). The redshift distribution extends over 0<z<0.5 and a high fraction of the sources show intense nebular emission lines…
In this short survey of the applications of wide-field, multi-object spectroscopy to galaxy evolution, large-scale structure and cosmology, I interleave summaries of the general goals and state of play in these fields with specific examples…