Galaxy Formation and Evolution - IAP Research Group

The scientists in the group have strong expertise in many techniques for modelling galaxies and their evolution:

development of evolution codes (spectral evolution, galactic chemical evolution)

formation and evolution of dust, radiative transfert
direct or inverse spectral synthesis, and measurement of photometric redshifts
phenomenological models and semi-analytical codes of galaxy evolution
simple models of isolated galaxy evolution or by galaxy mergers, impact on the intra-cluster gas
kinematical and dynamical modelling of galaxies and large-scale structures of galaxies
modelling of radio-sources.

These theoretical developments allow one to model the bursts of star formation and to analyse the chemical evolution of the interstellar medium in nearby galaxies (role of massive stars, feedback effects, enrichment in heavy elements).

As by-products of these modelling, "simulated observations" are useful for predicting the performances of future observing instruments, and for performing direct comparisons between the theoretical predictions and the observations:

libraries of synthetic spectra
integration of the spectral properties of galaxies into the cosmological simulations of galaxy formation.

Theoretical modelling