Related papers: Galaxy Formation -- a Condensation Process just af…
The 5 independent correlations between the properties of galaxies observed outside big clusters must set such strong constraints on any theory of galaxy formation that it is hard to imagine any but the right one passing muster; certainly…
[Abridged] Over the past two decades observations and theoretical simulations have established a global frame-work of galaxy formation and evolution in the young Universe. Galaxies formed as baryonic gas cooled at the centres of collapsing…
When galaxy formation started in the history of the Universe remains unclear. Studies of the cosmic microwave background indicate that the Universe, after initial cooling (following the Big Bang), was reheated and reionized by hot stars in…
The current understanding of galaxy formation is that it proceeds in a 'bottom up' way, with the formation of small clumps of gas and stars that merge hierarchically until giant galaxies are built up. The baryonic gas loses the thermal…
Young galaxies are clumpy, gas-rich, and highly turbulent. Star formation appears to occur by gravitational instabilities in galactic disks. The high dispersion makes the clumps massive and the disks thick. The star formation rate should be…
Recent studies of galaxies ~2-3 Gyr after the Big Bang have revealed large, turbulent rotating systems. The existence of well-ordered rotation in galaxies during this peak epoch of cosmic star formation may suggest that gas accretion…
We propose a possible new model for the formation of chain galaxies at high redshift. Our model is summarized as follows. Step I: Successive merging of subgalactic gas clumps results in the formation of a galaxy with a mass of $10^{11-12}…
The clustering of galaxies relative to the mass distribution declines with time because: first, nonlinear peaks become less rare events; second, the densest regions stop forming new galaxies because gas there becomes too hot to cool and…
Magnitude-limited galaxy redshift surveys are now providing large samples of galaxies to beyond z=2, while color-selected and emission-line-selected samples are finding galaxies to z=4.7. A broad picture is emerging of galaxy formation…
Over the last two decades, realistic studies have often concluded that the first bound objects to form can be very small, much smaller than a solar mass. After recombination, the Jeans mass drops rapidly to the order of a Giant Molecular…
In a Lambda CDM Universe, galaxies grow in mass both through star formation and through addition of already-formed stars in galaxy mergers. Because of this partial decoupling of these two modes of galaxy growth, I discuss each separately in…
We outline a scenario of galaxy formation in which the gas in galaxy-forming regions was preheated to high entropy by vigorous energy feedback associated with the formation of stars in old ellipticals and bulges and with AGN activity. Such…
Galaxy merging is the late time manifestation of the galaxy formation process and likely significantly effects $z<1$ galaxies. A ``maximum reasonable rate'' model for merging finds a $\sim2$ mag K band increase in the luminosities of dwarf…
According to the current understanding of cosmic structure formation, the precursors of the most massive structures in the Universe began to form shortly after the Big Bang, in regions corresponding to the largest fluctuations in the cosmic…
We use high resolution simulations to study the formation and distribution of galaxies within a cluster which forms hierarchically. We follow both dark matter and baryonic gas which is subject to thermal pressure, shocks and radiative…
The process by which massive galaxies transition from blue, star-forming disks into red, quiescent galaxies remains one of the most poorly-understood aspects of galaxy evolution. In this investigation, we attempt to gain a better…
This paper presents a review of the topic of galaxy formation and evolution, focusing on basic features of galaxies, and how these observables reveal how galaxies and their stars assemble over cosmic time. I give an overview of the observed…
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…
The cosmic star formation rate density first increases with time towards a pronounced peak 10 Gyrs ago (or z=1-2) and then slows down, dropping by more than a factor 10 since z=1. The processes at the origin of the star formation quenching…
Current theories of galaxy formation have tended to focus on hierarchical structure formation, which is the most likely scenario for cosmological models with lots of power at small scales (e.g. standard cold dark matter). Models with little…