Lectures given at Post-Planck Cosmology, Ecole de Physique des Houches, Les Houches, July 8-Aug 2, 2013, eds. B. Wandelt, C. Deffayet, P. Peter, to be published by Oxford University Press, and New Horizons for Observational Cosmology, International School of Physics Enrico Fermi, Varenna, July 1-6, 2013, eds. A. Melchiorri, A. Cooray, E. Komatsu, to be published by the Italian Society of Physics
http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.0107

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GALAXY FORMATION

Joseph Silk

Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, UPMC Univ. Paris VI, 98 bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
Beecroft Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK

Arianna Di Cintio

Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid - Madrid, Spain
Physics Department, Università di Roma Sapienza - Rome, Italy

Irina Dvorkin

School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University - Tel Aviv, Israel


Summary: Galaxy formation is at the forefront of observation and theory in cosmology. An improved understanding is essential for improving our knowledge both of the cosmological parameters, of the contents of the universe, and of our origins. In these lectures intended for graduate students, galaxy formation theory is reviewed and confronted with recent observational issues. In Lecture 1, the following topics are presented: star formation considerations, including IMF, star formation efficiency and star formation rate, the origin of the galaxy luminosity function, and feedback in dwarf galaxies. In Lecture 2, we describe formation of disks and massive spheroids, including the growth of supermassive black holes, negative feedback in spheroids, the AGN-star formation connection, star formation rates at high redshift and the baryon fraction in galaxies.


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