Galaxies in the local Universe fall into two main categories of spirals and ellipticals. In this Thesis, we explore the structural evolution of galaxies into this bimodal distribution.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.J.A. Rottgering, Co-promotor: David Sobral

The origin and evolution of galaxies are closely linked to many different physical phenomena.

Promotores: Prof.dr. M. Franx & Prof.dr. P.G. van Dokkum (Yale University)

Galaxies are environments where gas coalesces, cools, and is converted into stars. However, it remains unclear the exact mechanisms through which galaxies acquire, redistribute and lose their gas.

Radio jets are important to the evoultion of galaxies. However, it is still not fully understood how a radio jet can be triggered.

Promotor: M. Franx, Co-Promotor: I.F. Labbé

Promotores: Prof.dr. J. Schaye & Prof.dr. C. Steidel (California Institute of Technology)

The formation and evolution of galaxies is fundamentally driven by the formation of new stars out of cold gas.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Franx, Co-Promotor: Rychard Bouwens

This thesis investigates the structural evolution and assembly of galaxies since the first few billions years after the big bang.

When observing star-forming galaxies, we are not only seeing stellar light, but we also see how this interacts with galactic gas and dust. This thesis contains studies of the stellar, nebular and dust properties of low mass star-forming galaxies.

This thesis investigates how galaxies form and what diversifies the evolutionary histories of galaxies.

Dark matter represents around eighty per cent of the total mass in the Universe. Yet, we still don't really know what it's made of. Astronomer Pavel Mancera Piña is looking for answers. With a Veni grant from NWO and the most advanced telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, he will investigate…

Outflows are crucially important for the gas budget and evolution of luminous star-forming galaxies and AGNs, with observed mass outflow rates of the same order as the star formation rate. Greater star formation and black hole growth lead to more intense feedback and outflows, resulting in self-regulated…

Understanding how galaxies form, interact, and evolve comes largely from comparing theory predictions with observational data. Numerical simulations of galaxies provide the most accurate approach to testing the theory, as they follow the non-linear evolution of gas and dark matter in great detail and…

How did galaxies form? How did galaxies evolve?

Promotor: Prof.dr. K.H. Kuijken, Co-Promotor: Dr. H.Hoekstra

This thesis aims to enhance our understanding of galaxies by testing theoretical models of galaxy formation against observations, particularly in the cases of extreme systems which have been found to have an excess of baryonic mass in their central regions, in the form of either supermassive black holes…

Galaxies form and evolve through close interaction with their surroundings. As a result, the heavy elements ('metals') that are synthesized in stars, are found both inside and outside galaxies.

This thesis explores the theoretical and observational properties of distant massive galaxies that harbour active black holes in their centres and shine brightly at radio wavelengths.

Promotor: Koen Kuijken Co-promotor: Henk Hoekstra

Promotor: H.J.A. Röttgering, Co-promotor: G.K. Miley

Galaxies in the Universe are distributed along the intricate framework of the Cosmic Web. Groups and clusters of galaxies comprise the densest regions in this network, and therefore, are excellent cosmic laboratories to study different aspects of galaxy evolution in extreme environments.

Labbe

This thesis focuses on the X-ray spectral analysis of merging galaxy clusters and the plasma code development for future high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy observations.

We investigate the buildup of galaxies from various vantage points. The first two chapters focus on the stellar content of galaxies, especially the distribution of stellar masses at birth and potential variations therein in various galactic environments.

In this thesis, the research focuses on the properties of dark matter and dark matter haloes and how they connect with the galaxies we can observe in the Universe.

Promotor: H.J.A. Rottgering, Co-Promotor: R.J. van Weeren

Promotor: J. Schaye

In this thesis, I studied the origin and evolution of the non-thermal radiation in merging galaxy clusters.

Researchers at Leiden Observatory study the fundamental physics that creates structure in the Universe. These processes collect matter into galaxies and gas into stars. With the use of powerful telescopes and advanced calculations and computer simulations, Leiden astronomers seek to understand the origin,…

Researchers at Leiden Observatory study the fundamental physics that creates structure in the Universe. These processes collect matter into galaxies and gas into stars. With the use of powerful telescopes and advanced calculations and computer simulations, Leiden astronomers seek to understand the origin,…

Within the field of astronomy, understanding how galaxies grow and evolve from the Big Bang to the present day is a challenging and complex question.

The thesis deals with the study of giant radio galaxies (GRGs), which are radio galaxies of megaparsec sizes.

Following the Big Bang, structure in the Universe started collapsing under the force of gravity. This resulted in the formation of the first stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

This thesis presents pioneering work on the panchromatic emission of some of the most luminous galaxies in the early Universe: star forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei.

Franx

One of the key quests in astronomy is to study the growth and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. Radio observations provide a powerful means of studying the formation of stars and subsequent buildup of distant galaxies, in a way that is unbiased by the presence of dust.

Galaxies form and live inside dark matter haloes. As a consequence, they are exposed to the tidal fields generated by the surrounding matter distribution: this imprints a preferential direction to the galaxy shapes, which leads to a coherent alignment on physically close galaxies, called intrinsic a…

Promotores: Prof.dr. M. Franx, Prof.dr. M. Kriek (Univ. of California at Berkeley)

How did toxin genes evolve from harmless physiological genes?

Promotores: Prof.dr. F.P. Israel, Prof.dr. P.P. van der Werf

We explored how to morphologically classify well-resolved jetted radio-loud active galactic nuclei (RLAGN) in the LOw Frequency Array (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) using machine learning.

Promotores: Prof.dr. J. Schaye, Prof.dr. S.D.M. White (MPA Garching)

Promotor: H.J.A. Röttgering, Co-promotor: M. Haverkorn

Galaxy intrinsic alignments induce a major astrophysical contamination to weak gravitational lensing measurements and need to be modelled and mitigated when extracting cosmological information from such measurements.

Promotor: F.P. Israel, Co-Promoter: R. Meijerink

Evolution & Biodiversity is one of the four research themes of the Institute of Biology Leiden.

One of the most important puzzles in modern astrophysics is the nature of dark matter.