I briefly review what has been learned from determinations of mean stellar ages and abundances from integrated light studies of early-type galaxies, and discuss some new questions posed by recent data. A short discussion of spectroscopic ages is presented, but the main focus of this review is on the abundances of Fe, Mg, Ca, N, and C, obtained from comparisons of measurements taken in integrated spectra of galaxies with predictions from stellar population synthesis models.

The current status of numerical simulations of galaxy formation is reviewed. After a description of the main numerical simulation techniques, I will present several applications in order to illustrate how numerical simulations have improved our understanding of the galaxy formation process.

Observations of large samples of galaxies from low to high redshifts are composing a picture of remarkable simplicity: (1) The star formation rate (SFR) of starforming galaxies scales almost linearly with mass, strongly decline with cosmic time, and exhibits very small scatter around the average relation. (2) Due to the high observed SFRs the mass of galaxies at high redshifts must increase very rapidly, and yet the mass function of star forming galaxies evolves only very slightly with redshift. (3) At all redshifts the fraction of quenched (passively evolving) galaxies increases with galactic stellar mass and with local overdensity, with the remarkable property that the relative efficiency of "mass quenching" is independent of environment, and that of "environment quenching" is independent of mass. In a recent paper by the zCOSMOS collaboration, Peng et al. (2010) demonstrate that these three empirical facts suffice to account for the observed evolution of the galaxy mass function and naturally generate the "double-Schechter" mass function for quenched galaxies.

The origin of the galaxies represents an important focus of current cosmological research, both observational and theoretical. Its resolution involves a comprehensive understanding of star formation and evolution, galaxy dynamics, supermassive black holes, and the cosmology of the very early universe. In this paper, I will review our current understanding of galaxy formation and review some of the challenges that lie ahead. Specific issues that I address include the galaxy luminosity function, feedback by supernovae and by AGN, and downsizing. I argue that current evidence favours two distinct modes of star formation in the early universe, in order to account for the origin of disk and massive spheroidal galaxies. However perhaps the most urgent need is for a robust theory of star formation.

본 연구에서는 SDSS DR6을 이용하여 별탄생율과 활동성 은하핵의 막대의 특성, 특히 막대의 세기에 대한 의존성을 조사하였다. 막대의 세기를 보다 잘 표현하기 위하여 막대의 길이와 축비를 이용하여 막대를 6개의 군으로 나누었다. Hα 방출선 세기로부터 구한 별탄생율은 막대의 세기와 좋은 상관관계를 보였으나 활동성 은하핵은 막대와 또렷한 상관관계를 보이지 않았다. 전자의 상관관계는 막대에 의해 유발되는 가스 유입이 막대의 세기에 의존하기 때문이라고 해석되며, 활동성 은하핵이 막대의 특성과 특별한 상관관계를 보이지 않는 것은 초중량 블랙홀로 들어가는 가스의 양이 막대와 초거대 블랙홀과의 상호 작용에 의해 조절된다는 것을 의미한다. 활동성 은하핵은 주변의 밀도에 의해 영향을 받으나 별탄생율은 주변의 밀도와 무관해 보인다. 이것은 별탄생은 은하에서의 가스 밀도에 의해 결정되는 국지적인 현상인데 반해 활동성 은하핵은 질량이나 광도와 같은 은하의 특성이 밀도-광도관계로 표현되는 은하의 환경 의존성과 밀접한 관계가 있음을 암시한다.

We present a photometric study of galaxies in the central regions of six nearby galaxy clusters at redshift z=0.0231~0.0951. We have derived BVI photometry of the galaxies from the CCD images obtained at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomical Observatory (BOAO) in Korea, and JHKs photometry of the bright galaxies from the 2MASS extended source catalog. Comparing the galaxy photometry results with the simple stellar population model of Bruzual & Charlot (2003) in the optical & NIR color-color diagrams, we have estimated the ages and metallicities of early type galaxies. We have found that the observed galaxies had recent star-formation mostly 5 ~ 7 Gyrs ago but the spread in age estimation is rather large. The average metallicities are [Fe/H]=0.l~0.5 dex. These results support the hypothesis that large early type galaxies in clusters are formed via hierarchical merging of smaller galaxies.

Disk galaxies abound with intermediate-scale structures such as OB star complexes, giant clouds, and dust spurs in a close geometrical association with spiral arms. Various mechanisms have been proposed as candidates for their origin, but a comprehensive theory should encompass fundamental physical agents such as self-gravity, magnetic fields, galactic differential rotation, and spiral arms, all of which are known to exist in disk galaxies. Recent numerical simulations incorporating all these physical processes show that magneto-Jeans instability (MJI), in which magnetic tension resists the stabilizing Coriolis force of galaxy rotation, is much more powerful than swing-amplification or the Parker instability in forming self-gravitating intermediate-scale structures. The MJI occurring in shearing and expanding flows off spiral arms rapidly forms structures elongated along the direction perpendicular to the arms, remarkably similar to dust spurs seen in HST images of spiral galaxies. In highly nonlinear stages, these spurs fragment to form bound clumps, possibly evolving into bright arm and interarm H II regions, suggesting that all these intermediate-scale structures in spiral galaxies probably share a common dynamical origin.