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Massive galaxies are among the most interesting objects in our Universe, as they are peculiar in many aspects. They are few, but they account collectively for half of the stars ever formed. They are mostly quiescent nowadays but they are believed to have undergone an impressively efficient phase of star formation long ago, when our Universe was a quite different and turbulent place. There is convincing evidence that such behemoths evolve much faster with respect to the lower mass counterparts, reaching quiescence shortly after the powerful starburst. In addition, they live in the most extreme environments, like galaxy groups and clusters where the frequent mergers and the interaction with the hot intra-group- and intra-cluster-medium might seriously affect their properties. They host super-massive black holes (BH) at their center and are likely the most affected by the powerful winds and jets generated by the active galactic nucleus (AGN) accreting disc.

How they form and evolve and what’s their relation with their environment and central BH are questions still at the core of modern galaxy evolution studies. The conference will review the most recent observational and theoretical results about the life of such giant systems from their birth to their death.

 

Key scientific questions addressed by the conference

 

• At what redshift do massive galaxies form?

• What is their global star formation history?

• How do they evolve in an evolving environment?

• Do they co-evolve or simply co-exist with their central black hole?

• What does their dynamics reveal about their assembly history?

• How do they accrete their mass: in situ SF activity or dry merger?

• How do they stop forming stars?

 

To this aim, the conference will review the following aspects:

 

• Observations of the most distant massive galaxies and of their properties, number density and environment

• Observation of the co-evolution of massive systems and the cosmic web: from proto-clusters, to local clusters through galaxy groups.

• Observation of co-evolution of massive host and central black-hole: occurrence of AGN activity and AGN driven winds or radio jets, direct effect of AGN feedback on massive galaxy properties

• Observational constraints of the massive galaxy gas accretion rate and mass loading factor across cosmic time

• Evolution of the most important scaling relations, such as the mass-metallicity, mass-size and stellar-mass-host halo mass relations

• Predictions of the state of the art simulations and review of the limits of the current paradigm of galaxy formation

• Future prospects of new galaxy evolution surveys and projects

 

Scientific Organizing Committee

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• Paola Popesso, Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching (cochair)

• Angela Bongiorno, INAF, Rome, Italy, (co-chair)

• Andrea Cimatti, University of Bologna, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Italy

• Mark Dickinson, NOAO, Tucson, USA

• Klaus Dolag, Munich Sternwarte, Munich, Germany

• Adriano Fontana, INAF, Rome, Italy

• Vincenzo Mainieri, ESO, Garching, Germany

• Simona Mei, Univ. Paris Diderot - LERMA - Observatoire de Paris, France

• Enrico Piconcelli, INAF, Rome, Italy

• Lucia Pozzetti, INAF, Bologna, Italy,

• Mara Salvato, MPE, Garching, Germany

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Local Organizing Commitee

 

• Angela Bongiorno

• Paola Popesso

• Sonja Lutz-Lampertseder

• Giuliana Giobbi

• Alice Concas

• Laura Morselli

 

Invited Speakers

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• Sirio Belli, Max Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany

• Robert Feldmann, Institute for Computational Science, University of Zurich

• Emanuele Daddi, Institut de recherche sur les lois fondamentales de l'Univers, CEA, Paris,

• Megan Donahue, Michigan state University, USA

• Davor Krajnovic, Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP)

• Matt Jarvis, University of Oxford, UK

• Chris Harrison, European Southern Observatory, Garching

• Claudia Maraston, The Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Portsmouth

• Piero Madau, University of California Santa Cruz, USA, (summary talk with A. Fontana, SOC)

• Yinjie Peng, The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University

• Alvio Renzini, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova - Inaf (opening talk)

• Dominik A. Riechers, Cornell University, USA

• Raffaella Schneider, University of Rome, La Sapienza, Rome

• Bram Venemans, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg

• Marta Volonteri, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris - IAP

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Special simulation session

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A special session will be dedicated to the direct comparison of few of the major simulations. A common talk will be prepared by :

• Bruno Henriques (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) for the Millennium simulation

• Annalisa Pillepich (Max Planck für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany) for Illustris

• Rhea-Silvia Remus (Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany) for Magneticum

• Claudio della Vecchia (Istituto de Astrofisica de Canaria, Spain) for Eagle

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