ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM | The Era of Star Formation in Galaxy Clusters

I will describe the emerging evidence for an epoch of significant growth of cluster galaxies at z ~ 1.5. This evidence rules out the (overly) simplistic galaxy formation models that seem to fit the data at later times (i.e., at z < 1). New measurements of rapid evolution in a number of critical probes of the growth of cluster galaxies -- including a census of their stars, their star formation histories, and the rates of ongoing star formation, merger, and black hole activity -- all suggest the z ~ 1.5 era is a very active one in the formation and assembly of massive cluster galaxies.

Colloquia are generally preceded by tea and cookies at 3:30 in the Owl room (Dennison 845). For more information, please contact astro.colloquia@umich.edu.