Formation and Evolution of Galaxies 2023-2024 Ia


Lecturer: Prof. dr. Karina Caputi


Teaching Assistant: Fernanda Roman de Oliveira


All lectures and tutorials will be held in room 161 (Kapteynborg), unless otherwise stated.



This course will consist of a series of lectures, whose slides will progressively be posted here, as well as tutorial sessions. There will be two main types of exercises in the tutorials: 1) professional paper reading and discussion; 2) computational assignments.

The final grade of the course will be based on the computational assignments (40%) and a final exam (60%). A minimum grade of 5 (five) is necessary in each computational assignment in order to be able to take the final exam and/or resit. A minimum grade of 5 (five) is necessary in the final exam or resit to pass the course.
The computational assignments should be done in pairs. Students must send an email to the tutor at least a week before the first assignment deadline to indicate the pair members. The deadlines to submit the special computational assignments will be communicated via email.


The final exam (tentamen) and resit will be based on the content of the lectures, including both the .pdf files provided below and discussion during the lectures, as well as the papers discussed in the tutorials.

The final exam will be taken on Tuesday 31 October 2023 at 11:00-13:00 h CEST. The resit exam will be taken on Thursday 1 February 2024 at 11:00-13:00 h.

The final exam is individual and can be solved with open notes. Laptops/tablets are allowed, but the wifi connection must be switched off at all times. Mobile phones are not allowed. The interchange of any material during the exam is strictly forbidden.







Week  Date  Time  Slot  Content 
36 07.09.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 1 Introduction, Basic Concepts and Initial Perturbations
08.09.2023 11:00-13:00 Lecture 2 Dark Matter Haloes
37 14.09.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 3 Galaxy Formation in ΛCDM
15.09.2023 11:00-13:00 Lecture 4 Statistical Galaxy Studies
38 20.09.2023 13:00-15:00 Tutorial 1 Paper Reading 1
21.09.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 5 Large-Scale structure / Environment and Galaxy Clusters
22.09.2023 11:00-13:00 Lecture 6 Reionization and High-Redshift Galaxies
39 27.09.2023 13:00-15:00 Tutorial 2 Paper Reading 2
28.09.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 7 Lyman-alpha emitters from Cosmic Noon to Reionization (Guest lecturer: Dr. Josephine Kerutt)
29.09.2023 11:00-13:00 Lecture 8 Star Formation and Chemical Enrichment
40 04.10.2023 15:00-17:00 Tutorial 3 Computational Assignment 1 (Virgo cluster)
05.10.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 9 Formation of Elliptical Galaxies
06.10.2023 11:00-13:00 Lecture 10 Formation of Spiral Galaxies
41 12.10.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 11 Overview of Galaxy Properties (Guest lecturer: Dr. Edoardo Iani )
13.10.2023 11:00-13:00 Tutorial 4 Paper Reading 3
42 18.10.2023 15:00-17:00 Tutorial 5 Computational Assignment 2 (Virgo cluster)
19.10.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 12 Galaxy Evolution from Multiwavelength Observations
20.10.2023 11:00-13:00 Lecture 13 The Intergalactic Medium / The Role of AGN in Galaxy Evolution
43 25.10.2023 13:00-15:00 Tutorial 6 Pre-Exam Review Consultation
26.10.2023 13:00-15:00 Lecture 14 Pre-Exam Review Consultation





Recommended (only suggested, not mandatory) bibliography:

* Longair, M., Galaxy Formation , 2nd edition, Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-73477-2.
* Cimatti, A., Fraternali, F., and Nipoti, C., Introduction to Galaxy Formation and Evolution, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-13476-8