Welcome to the Galaxy Formation Group
Galaxy formation is one of the most important areas of research in cosmology,
and our group is very active in this field. We study galaxy formation
using a variety of theoretical and observational techniques, ranging from
direct numerical simulations over semi-analytic models of galaxy formation
to detailed analysis of large observational surveys. We are also actively
participating in a number of large international collaborations that focus
on the physics of galaxy formation. Click on the links below to reach
individual project pages:
Numerical Simulations
 VIRGO: Cosmological
N-Body Simulations
The VIRGO Consortium is an international grouping of scientists carrying
out supercomputer simulations of the formation of galaxies, galaxy clusters,
large-scale structure, and of the evolution of the intergalactic medium.
Projects of VIRGO include:
-The Millennium Simulation Project
-The Hubble Volume Project
-High-resolution dark matter simulations
-Hydrodynamic simulations of structure formation
-Cluster and galaxy resimulation
-Topology of the Universe
-Large scale motions of superclusters and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
-Ray-tracing simulations of gravitational lensing
-Simulations including Gas
( many pages include data download tables)
Data Visualization
This page offers a selection of data visualization products from our
numerical simulations, including images and digital movies. (image and movie files)
GADGET: Galaxies with
Dark matter and Gas intEracT
GADGET is a freely available code for cosmological N-body/SPH simulations
on serial workstations, or on massively parallel computers with distributed
memory. The parallel version of GADGET uses an explicit communication
model that is implemented with the standardized MPI communication interface...
(includes data download table)
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Semi-Analytic Galaxy Formation
Millennium Simulation
The Millennium Simulation is the largest cosmological N-body
simulation ever carried out and has been used to construct
sophisticated semi-analytic models of galaxy information that cover the
complete galaxy population in a representative piece of
the Universe down to luminosities substantially below L*.
(includes data download table)
Simple and fast galaxy formation model
This approach is using the complex structure of merger-trees from
the Millennium simulation, combined with simple schematic recipes
for the formation and evolution of galaxies. The model produces galaxies
which fit various observational constraints.
GIF
Scientists involved in the GIF project combined the large high-resolution
N-body simulations with semi-analytical models to study formation and
evolution of galaxies.
(includes data download table)
Constrained Realization
of the Local Universe
These models simulate the formation and evolution of the neighbouring
galaxy population starting from initial conditions with a smoothed linear
density field which matches that derived from the IRAS 1.2 Jy galaxy
survey.
(includes data download table, images)
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Large Surveys
SDSS:
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the most ambitious astronomical survey
project ever undertaken. The survey will map in detail one-quarter of
the entire sky, determining the positions and absolute brightness of
more than 100 million celestial objects. SDSS is a joint project of
many international institutions including the MPA.
ATLAS 3D Survey
The ATLAS 3D Project (Cappellari et al. 2011) combines a multi-wavelength survey of a complete sample of 260 early-type galaxies within the local (42Mpc) volume (1.16×10^5 Mpc^3) with numerical simulations and semi-analytic modeling of galaxy formation.
GASS
The GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey (GASS) is an ongoing large targeted survey at Arecibo, home to the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. The observations started on March 19th 2008. GASS is designed to measure the neutral hydrogen content of a representative sample of about 1000 massive, galaxies, uniformly selected from the SDSS spectroscopic and GALEX imaging surveys.
COLD GASS
This project builds upon the multi-wavelength data set accumulated by the Galex Arecibo SDSS Survey (GASS) - a survey designed to measure the atomic hydrogen content for an unbiased sample of 1000 massive galaxies with SDSS optical spectra and GALEX UV imaging.
GALEX
The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope observing galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. A Pegasus rocket launched GALEX into orbit at 8 a.m. EDT on April 28th, 2003. Although originally planned as a 29-month mission, the NASA Senior Review Panel in 2006 recommended that the mission lifetime be extended.
WISE
WISE is a NASA-funded Explorer mission that will provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the Universe. Among the objects WISE will study are asteroids, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies.
Bluedisc Project
The Bluedisk project, lead by Guinevere Kauffmann (MPA Garching), has recently started with a WSRT neutral-hydrogen survey of 50 galaxies, which are selected based on their optical and ultraviolet properties as observed with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and GalaxyEvolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite.
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Collaborative Networks
European Network (Intergalactic Medium)
The Intergalactic Medium is the repository of the dominant component
of ordinary matter in the Universe. This network seeks a unified description
of the large-scale distribution, thermal and ionization state, chemical
composition, and evolution of the IGM...
European
Network (Galaxy Formation)
It has recently become possible to identify galaxies so distant that
they are seen when only a fraction as old as nearby systems. The evolution
of the universe can be studied directly through observation of such
galaxies, and this has been a major motivation for the new generation
of large ground-based telescopes as well as for satellite observatories
like the Hubble Space Telescope and ISO...
Comments to:  volker@mpa-garching.mpg.de
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