|
The stellar population of a galaxy contains a record of its star formation and assembly history, making it an important area of research to develop our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. So far in my PhD I’ve worked on two projects, the first focussing on early-type galaxies (ETGs), the second on late-types (LTGs). These works aim to understand the link between the overall structure and dynamics of a galaxy, and the evolution of the stars within it. Currently, the well-established correlations between the mass of a galaxy and the properties of its stars are considered evidence for mass driving the evolution of the stellar population. However, in our ETGs project using the SAMI Galaxy survey, we found that stellar population parameters correlate more tightly with gravitational potential and surface mass density, rather than mass. More recently, we’ve extended this research to investigate the stellar populations of late-type galaxies (LTGs) using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In this first annual research update, I will provide a recap of my first project using ETGs, before detailing the progress made on the LTGs project. |
|