Which physical processes drive massive galaxy evolution

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Eric Findlay Bell
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2005 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 17341944

Though rare, massive galaxies (with substantially more present-day stars than the Milky Way galaxy) dominate the stellar mass budget of the Universe. While few of them are forming stars now, there is evidence that most of their stars formed in intense, dust-enshrouded (and therefore hard to observe) episodes at early times. Massive galaxies are strongly spatially clustered, making it difficult to map the evolution of their average properties in previous, small look-back surveys.Therefore, central questions remain unanswered about the formation of this dominant galaxy population:- Over what period did most of their stars form, and why have they stopped forming stars now?- What processes are responsible for shaping the dynamical configuration of galaxies?- Does larger-scale environment play a direct role in shaping these galaxies and their stars?I propose to assemble and analyze a dataset comprising the the largest samples of distant galaxies (at early epochs), the widest-area Hubble Space Telescope images ever taken, and large multiwavelength surveys. Using these data, I will address the above questions and explore massive galaxy evolution through direct look-back observations over the last 8-10 billion years (the last 2/3 of the lifetime of the Universe).

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups