Seminar: Understanding the evolving galaxies in the Local Universe

Dr Ivy Wong 

CSIRO

The Local Universe provides an excellent high-resolution laboratory for studying the detailed processes of star formation and galaxy evolution. In this seminar, I will present some highlights from my multiwavelength studies of nearby galaxies selected from HIPASS, the largest neutral Hydrogen (HI) survey to-date.

I will show that:
(i) selecting galaxies via their HI content is a good way of selecting a large variety of star-forming galaxies regardless of size/stellar luminosity;
(ii) the upper mass end of the stellar IMF may not be uniform;
(iii) nearby post-starburst galaxies occupy the low-mass end of the green valley and represent a population of galaxies which are quickly going from the blue cloud to the red sequence; and
(iv) unlike strong gravitational interactions, ram pressure does not strongly induce star formation.