Related papers: Quasar Elemental Abundances and Host Galaxy Evolut…
The tight relationship between the masses of black holes and galaxy spheroids in nearby galaxies implies a causal connection between the growth of these two components. Optically luminous quasars host the most prodigious accreting black…
Recent work suggests that galaxy evolution, and the build-up of stellar mass (M*) over cosmic time, is characterized by changes with redshift of star formation rate (SFR) and oxygen abundance (O/H). In a companion paper, we have compiled a…
The formation of the first generations of stars at redshifts z > 15-20 signaled the transition from the simple initial state of the universe to one of increasing complexity. We here review recent progress in understanding the assembly…
We investigate the evolutionary properties of a sample of quasars at 5<z<6.4 using the semi-analytical hierarchical model GAMETE/QSOdust. We find that the observed properties of these quasars are well reproduced by a common formation…
We calculate the stellar mass-metallicity relation at five epochs ranging to z~2.3. We quantify evolution in the shape of the mass-metallicity relation as a function of redshift; the mass-metallicity relation flattens at late times. There…
Galaxies hosting z~2 quasars are the high-$z$ progenitors of today's massive `red-and-dead' galaxies. With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar can be used to study a foreground quasar's halo gas in absorption,…
Quasars, powered by gas accretion onto supermassive black holes, rank among the most energetic objects of the Universe. While they are thought to be ignited by galaxy mergers and affect the surrounding gas, observational constraints on both…
The iron abundance relative to alpha-elements in the circumnuclear region of quasars is regarded as a clock of the star formation history and, more specifically, of the enrichment by SNIa. We investigate the iron abundance in a sample of 22…
The aim of this paper is to set constraints of the epochs of early-type galaxy formation through the 'archaeology' of the stellar populations in local galaxies. Using our models of absorption line indices that account for variable abundance…
Observations of CO molecules in the millimetrer domain at high redshift (larger than 1), have provided interesting informations about star formation efficiency, and its evolution with redshift. Due to the difficulty of the detections,…
Quasars at z>4 provide direct information on the first massive structures to form in the Universe. Recent ground-based optical surveys (e.g., the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) have discovered large numbers of high-redshift quasars, increasing…
The history of the transition from a neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) to one that is almost fully ionized can reveal the character of cosmological ionizing sources and set important constraints on the stellar birthrate at high redshifts.…
Globular clusters will be present at high redshifts, near the very beginning of the galaxy formation process. Stellar evolution ensures that they will be much more luminous than today. We show that the redshift distribution at nano-Jansky…
Within the established framework of structure formation, galaxies start as systems of low stellar mass and gradually grow into far more massive galaxies. The existence of massive galaxies in the first billion years of the Universe,…
We have obtained deep, multi-band imaging observations around three of the most distant known quasars at redshifts z>6. Standard accretion theory predicts that the supermassive black holes present in these quasars were formed at a very…
We present models of the cosmological star formation and metal production history of (proto-)galaxies with varying axis ratios. More massive and/or roughly spherical systems reach the threshold-metallicity for a transition to a multi-phase…
Several conclusions have been reached over the last few years concerning high-redshift galaxies: (1) The excess of faint blue galaxies is due to dwarf galaxies. (2) Star formation peaks at redshifts z ~1-2. (3) It appears to occur piecemeal…
Initial conditions are set by Big bang nucleosynthesis from which we know that 90 per cent of baryons are dark and have essentially unknown chemical composition. In our own Galaxy, there are many clues from individual stars in different…
The discovery of high redshift quasars represents a challenge to the origin of supermassive black holes. Here, two evolutionary scenarios are considered. The first one concerns massive black holes in the local universe, which in a large…
Star formation in strongly self-gravitating cloud cores should be similar at all redshifts, forming single or multiple stars with a range of masses determined by local magneto-hydrodynamics and gravity. The formation processes for these…