2006 Fall Mini-Workshop - Galaxy Mergers:
From the Local Universe to
the Red Sequence
October 04 - 06, 2006
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, MD. USA
The link between star-formation and galaxy evolution is of considerable interest in the context of results from recently completed deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys. A recent flurry of papers in the last two years have presented results which indicate that enough so-called "red and dead" early-type galaxies exist to form the Red Sequence as far back as z ∼1. These studies suggest that non-dissipative (or "dry") merging is the key to forming massive early-type galaxies. It is further postulated that gas-rich (or "wet") mergers are unable to account for the most massive "red and dead" galaxies. Some evidence to support this can be found in numerical simulations of mergers. Yet, other lines of evidence support the importance of gas-rich merging: massive disk galaxies with large reservoirs of gas at z > 1 with colors that place them on the Red Sequence, nearby giant ellipticals which show the presence of both intermediate-age stellar populations and intermediate-age globular clusters and merger simulations which indicate that gaseous disks are needed in the central regions of mergers in order for these ob jects to have the same dynamical properties as elliptical galaxies. How do these competing merger pictures fit into our overall understanding of galaxy evolution, and can the observed Color-Magnitude Diagram be reconciled with predictions made by Λ-CDM cosmology and hierarchical assembly?
Invited Speakers:
- Josh Barnes - Numerical Simulations of Mergers
- Eric Bell - The Red Sequence/Blue Cloud from z ∼ 1
- Avishai Dekel - Feedback Processes
- Sadegh Khochfar - The Origin of Stars in Spheroids and its Implication on the Size-Evolution of Elliptical Galaxies
- Barry Rothberg - Dynamical Properties of Mergers
- Scott Trager- Stellar Populations in Elliptical Galaxies
- Pieter van Dokkum - Distant Red Mergers
- Brad Whitmore - Mergers in the Local Universe
Scientific Organizing Committee:
- B. Rothberg - SOC Chair
- R. de Jong
- P. Goudfrooij
- J. Hibbard (NRAO)
- B. Mobasher
- T. Puzia
- B. Whitmore