37th Saas-Fee advanced course of the
Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy

The Origin of the Galaxy and Local Group

4 - 10 March, 2007
Mürren, Switzerland

 

Course Overview

The image shows the Jungfrau mountain taken from Murren above which we have overlayed our closest massive neighbour, Andromeda. Together with the Milky Way and their collection of dark matter dominated orbiting satellites, these galaxies make up our Local Group. Within its 1 Mpc radius, more than 40 galaxies are known, and the census continues to increase. These nearby galaxies span five orders of magnitudes in mass and exhibit a wide variety of evolutionary histories. Their proximity allows us to study them at a level of detail that is inaccessible in more distant galaxies, making them an indispensable laboratory for testing theories of galaxy formation - one of todays most active areas of astrophysics research. The Milky Way has been the focal point of attention as the prime location to conduct "near-field cosmology" and to study the history of galaxy assembly in detail. Several large international Galactic surveys are currently being carried out, to be followed by ESA's cornerstone mission Gaia (2011). Each year several international conferences are dedicated to the Milky Way and to the Local Group. Given the tremendous observational and theoretical advances in this area and that this will be one of the prime areas of research also in the coming decade, a school on this topic seems most timely.

Three of the world's leading researchers working in this area will give a series of lectures at the Saas-Fee winter school. The lectures are intended for PhD students who are interested in carrying out research in this area. MSc/Diploma students who are thinking about a research career, or postdoctoral researchers working on other topics may find the school very interesting. The organisers will also give special seminars on the predictions of the standard cosmological model and constraints from the Local Group satellites.

Topics

A theoretical overview of galaxy formation within the now standard lambda cold dark matter cosmology
Observational overview of the Milky Way and Local Group
Satellites, streams, halo stars and globular clusters
The ISM, chemistry, star-formation, feedback & accretion

Reading material

The course materials will be made available on-line and will also appear in print in the Saas-Fee Lecture Course series.

Review articles:
Freeman & Bland-Hawthorn: The New Galaxy: Signatures of its Formation (2002, ARA&A, 40, 78)
Matteucci: The Chemical Evolution of the Galaxy (2001, Kluwer)
van den Bergh: The Galaxies of the Local Group (2000, Cambridge Univ. Press)