Cosmology

Abstract:

GalICS (for GALaxies In Cosmological Simulations) is a model of hierarchical galaxy formation which combines high resolution numerical simulations for the dark matter component with semi-analytic prescriptions for the baryonic matter. It provides us with an explicit cosmological framework to analyse observations of distant galaxies, and to understand how they evolve to become local galaxies. We use GalICS to build multi-wavelength mock galaxy catalogues which include clustering properties. We can compare them to the sample of Lyman Break Galaxies at z=3 ( Steidel et al., 1996), and to deep sub-mm surveys. The predictions of the model will be detailed, and show a good agreement with the available data.

Abstract:

We present results from a new and unique integral-field spectrograph, SAURON. It has a large field of view and high throughput and is primarily built for the study of stellar & gaseous kinematics and stellar populations in galaxies. Its aim is to carry out a systematic survey of the velocity fields, velocity dispersions, and line-strength distributions of nearby ellipticals, lenticular galaxies and spiral bulges.