Rutgers University Department of Physics and Astronomy

Galaxy Formation Seminar
Physics 689, Fall 2009

This is a graduate-level seminar on the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Instructor: Prof. Eric Gawiser, Serin 303W, 445-5500 x2733, gawiser@physics.rutgers.edu
Seminar: Thursday, 1:40 - 4:40 PM
Location: Serin 401, Busch Campus
Office Hours: email or call or drop by to arrange a meeting
Syllabus
(Astro)physicists are welcome to sit in on any seminar whose topics appear of interest and to participate in the discussions.
Sep. 3 Organizational Meeting
Sep. 10 Initial Conditions: Cosmological Structure Formation
Gawiser 2006, "Galaxy Formation"
Longair 1.5, 1.6
Lecture Slides PDF PPTX
"How (Not) to Give a Tlak" [Eric Gawiser, updated with class suggestions, view PPT(X) notes to see how it was delivered PDF PPTX PPT]
Sep. 17 Final Conditions: Low-redshift galaxies
Hubble 1929, "A Spiral Nebula as a Stellar System, Messier 31" [Luke Hovey PDF PPT]
Eggen, Lynden-Bell, and Sandage 1962, "Evidence from the Motions of Old Stars that the Galaxy Collapsed" [Michael Solway PDF PPT]
Peebles 1982, "Large-scale background temperature and mass fluctuations due to scale-invariant primeval perturbations" [Amruta Deshpande PDF PPT]
Rubin 1983, "The Rotation of Spiral Galaxies" [Ross Fadely PDF]
Longair 3
Sep. 24 Formation of Color and Morphology Sequences
Schechter 1976, " An analytic expression for the luminosity function for galaxies" [George Locke PDF PPT]
Blanton et al. 2001, "The Luminosity Function of Galaxies in SDSS Commissioning Data" [Chelsea Sharon PDF]
Mo, Mao & White 1998, "The formation of galactic discs" [Mike Berry PDF PPTX]
Bell et al. 2004, "Nearly 5000 Distant Early-Type Galaxies in COMBO-17: A Red Sequence and Its Evolution since z~1" [Bob Lindner PDF PPT]
Longair 3.8,3.9
Schneider 9.6
Oct. 1 Cosmological Simulations
Press & Schechter 1974, "Formation of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies by Self-Similar Gravitational Condensation" [Jean Walker PDF PPT]
Springel et al. 2005, "Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars" [Eve LoCastro PDF PPT]
Navarro, Frenk & White 1996, "The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos" [Yanchi Shi PDF PPT]
Oct. 8 Connecting Galaxies with Dark Matter Halos
Klypin 2000, "Numerical Simulations in Cosmology I: Methods" [Amruta Deshpande PDF PPT]
Tormen 1996, "Hydrodynamic Simulations of Galaxy Formation" [Luke Hovey PDF PPT]
Kravtsov 2009, "Dark matter substructure and dwarf galactic satellites" [Curtis McCully PDF]
Mo & White 1996, "An analytic model for the spatial clustering of dark matter haloes" [George Locke PDF PPT]
Tinker & Wetzel 2009, "What Does Clustering Tell Us About the Buildup of the Red Sequence?" [Brandon Patel PDF PPT]
Longair 2.2, 16
Oct. 15 No meeting
Oct. 22 The Zoo of High-redshift Galaxies
Primack 2009, "Dark Matter and Galaxy Formation" (Section 3) [Michael Solway PDF PPT]
Giavalisco 2003, "Lyman-Break Galaxies" [Jean Walker PDF PPT]
Franx et al. 2003, "A Significant Population of Red, Near-Infrared-selected High-Redshift Galaxies" [Bob Lindner PDF PPT]
Valiante et al. 2007, "A Mid-Infrared Spectroscopic Study of Submillimeter Galaxies: Luminous Starbursts at High Redshift" [Chelsea Sharon PDF]
Gawiser et al. 2007, "Lyman Alpha-Emitting Galaxies at z = 3.1: L* Progenitors Experiencing Rapid Star Formation" [Eve LoCastro PDF PPT]
Longair 19.4
Schneider 9.1,9.2
Oct. 29 Integral Constraints: the Baryon Budget
Giavalisco et al. 2004, "The Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Density of Star-forming Galaxies at Redshifts z>3.5" [Brandon Patel PDF PPT]
Dickinson et al. 2004, "The Evolution of the Global Stellar Mass Density at 0 < z < 3" [Bob Lindner PDF]
Pettini 1999, "Element Abundances at High Redshift" [Curtis McCully PDF PPT]
Wolfe, Gawiser & Prochaska 2005, "Damped Lyman Alpha Systems" [Jean Walker PDF PPT]
Longair 19.1,19.2,19.3
Schneider 3.9
Nov. 5 Galaxy-SMBH Correlations
Magorrian et al. 1998, "The Demography of Massive Dark Objects in Galaxy Centers" [Mike Berry PDF PPT]
Silk & Rees 1998, "Quasars and Galaxy Formation"[Curtis McCully PDF PPT]
Ferrarese & Merritt 2000, "A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies" [Yanchi Shi PDF PPT]
Hopkins et al. 2006, "A Unified, Merger-driven Model of the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes, and Galaxy Spheroids" [George Locke PDF PPT]
Longair 17
Schneider 3.5
Nov. 12 Feedback Processes and Semi-Analytical Models
Dekel & Silk 1986, "The origin of dwarf galaxies, cold dark matter, and biased galaxy formation" [Luke Hovey PDF PPT]
Primack 2009, "Dark Matter and Galaxy Formation" (Section 4) [Michael Solway PDF PPT]
Somerville & Primack 1999, "Semi-analytic modelling of galaxy formation: the local Universe" [Amruta Deshpande PDF PPT]
Croton et al. 2006,"The many lives of active galactic nuclei: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colours of galaxies" [Chelsea Sharon PDF]
Longair 19.5, 19.6
Schneider 9.6
Nov. 19 Did Galaxies or Stars Reionize the Universe?
Abel, Bryan & Norman 2002, "The Formation of the First Star in the Universe" [Eve LoCastro PDF PPT]
Wyithe & Loeb 2003, "Was the Universe Reionized by Massive Metal-free Stars?"[Roberto Sepulveda]
Bunker et al. 2009,"Galaxies at High Redshift and Reionization" [Ross Fadely PDF PPT]
McLure et al. 2009, "Galaxies at z = 6 - 9 from the WFC3/IR imaging of the HUDF" [Roberto Sepulveda]
Longair 18.7
Nov. 26 No meeting
Dec. 3 Final presentations (in 401)
1:40PM What powers the Lyman Alpha Blobs? [Chelsea Sharon PDF]
2:30PM What's the deal with sub-millimeter galaxies? [Bob Lindner PDF]
3:20PM How, when and where did globular clusters form? [Eve LoCastro PDF]
Dec. 8 Final presentations (in 401)
2:40PM What is the origin of the black hole-bulge mass correlation? [Curtis McCully PDF]
3:30PM A model for the black hole mass-halo mass correlation [Yan Shi PDF]
4:00PM Does the Initial Mass Function vary with redshift? [Amruta Deshpande PDF]
4:50PM How do elliptical galaxies form? [George Locke PDF]
Dec. 10 Final presentations (in 401)
1:40PM How does supernova feedback affect star formation in low- and high-mass halos? [Luke Hovey PDF]
2:30PM How do spiral disks form? [Michael Solway PDF]
3:20PM What is downsizing? Is it "anti-hierarchical"? What causes it? [Jean Walker PDF]
4:10PM What (if anything) can dwarf galaxies tell us about reionization? [Roberto Sepulveda PDF]
Readings
We will read 4 scientific papers per week, supplemented by a few textbook sections that I will lecture on. All students are expected to read the papers.
Paper Presentations
Each paper will be assigned to a student to be presented using an appropriate mix of Powerpoint and whiteboard. These presentations are expected to last roughly a half hour including questions and discussion, so they should take only 15 minutes without interruption. We will also give feedback on presentation design and delivery so that we can all get better at these crucial skills. Rough drafts of presentations (including Powerpoint and notes for whiteboard) should be sent to me by Tuesday each week so that I can give feedback. You are welcome to schedule time with me to practice your presentations; I am often available on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursday mornings. Each enrolled student will present 3 papers over the course of the semester.
Final Presentation
Each student should consult with me to select a final presentation topic before the middle of October. Appropriate topics are any unsolved or recently solved problem in galaxy formation. These presentations will be somewhat longer and should draw on multiple literature sources to make a coherent presentation defining the problem and describing its solution or possible solutions. Final presentations will occupy the last few seminars. Proposed reference lists are due to me by November 5. Final presentation rough drafts are due to me at least two days before the presentation occurs so that I can give feedback.
Only one topic remains unclaimed:
Are massive high-redshift galaxies denser than predicted by theory? What are their present-day descendants?
Sakai Website
I will maintain a class website that can be accessed through Sakai. It provides a chat room for archived discussion of course material outside of class and an online gradebook that will be used to return constructive comments on student presentations.
Textbooks
Two useful textbooks have been made available in the grad student lounge; I also have copies if you want to borrow them short-term. They are:
Longair: Galaxy Formation
Schneider: Extragalactic Astronomy & Cosmology
Grades
Students will be graded on a combination of presentation quality, effort, and demonstrated improvement. The grade will be based equally on class participation, paper presentations, and the final presentation.
Auditors
Auditors are expected to participate in class discussions and to give 2 paper presentations but are not required to give a final presentation.
Students with Disabilities
Information is available here.

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Please send any comments on this page to gawiser@physics.rutgers.edu.

Last revised September 9, 2009