How and why do galaxies stop forming stars?
A well-known feature of galaxies in the local Universe close to our own Milky Way is that they primarily divide into either star-forming spiral discs or non-star-forming ('quenched') ellipticals. Despite decades of study, it is largely unknown why some galaxies quench their star formation while others do not. Merging, morphology, black holes and environment all seemingly play a role. The range of scales involved and the non-linearity of the physical processes make galaxy quenching challenging to model, while disjoint galaxy surveys limit our ability to robustly link galaxy populations across cosmic time. I will present recent work on a rare 'transition' population termed 'post-starburst galaxies', supposedly caught in the act of shutting down their star formation and becoming red and dead elliptical galaxies. What can these objects tell us about the processes responsible for the diverse range of properties seen in the galaxy population today?
Speaker biography:
Prof. Vivienne Wild completed her PhD at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, followed by research positions in Munich, Paris and Edinburgh. She has been an academic member of staff at the University of St Andrews since 2012, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Her astrophysics research is in the field of extra-galactic astronomy — anything outside our own galaxy. She is interested in how the galaxy populations that we see in our local Galactic neighbourhood evolved from the population that we see in the early Universe with our most powerful telescopes. This takes her observational research across multiple wavelengths, from X-rays to radio, with computer simulations used to help interpret the observations. Her other research interest is in understanding how we can help our students to develop their identity as a physicist, and strengthen their sense of belonging to our community.
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