TMR meeting "QSO absorbers and galaxy formation" Padova, Feb 13/14 1997 PARTICIPANTS: S.Arnouts, S. Bressan, S.Charlot, B.Ciardi, S.Cristiani, V.D'Odorico, A.Ferrara, A.Fontana, E.Giallongo, F.Governato, M.Haehnelt, C.Lacey, J.Liu, F. Lucchin, S. Matarrese, L.Moscardini, Y. Ng, O.Pantano, P.Petitjean, C.Porciani, S.Savaglio. SPEAKERS Thursday 13 Introduction (S. Cristiani) Haehnelt Ferrara Lacey Matarrese D'Odorico Petitjean Giallongo Charlot Friday 14 Savaglio Fontana Governato Joint Discussion TOPICS The discussion was very informal. The participants discussed the topics listed below. 20-25 min per person were used for presenting what is going on in the field of interest. The emphasis was on FUTURE rather than on past activity, on what are perceived as the areas of major progress (theoretical and observational) and on what could be done on a collaborative basis to achieve otherwise unachievable results. Topics Damped systems/galaxy relation. Emission from DLa Galaxies The connection between absorption and emission in the universe. Evolution of the Lya forest. Origin of Lya Forest Clouds and relations with CDM scenarios Formation of Population III objects. Metal production in the early universe. Abundances in optically thin Lya clouds. Optical identification of metal line absorbers. Clustering of absorbers. Modelling clustering at high redshift. Strength and spectrum of the UV background. Evolution of the UV background at high z. Reionization history of the universe Deep imaging surveys and galaxy evolution. Effects of merging on number counts. Physics of dwarf galaxy formation. Nature of DM and possible diagnostic effects. Star formation history in the universe: what regulates it ? Numerical models of galaxy formation vs observations. Semi-analytical models of galaxy formation: how can we extend these models to model QSO absorption lines as well ? The HST deep field in the South. Search for QSOs. Notes from the IAP Meeting.