Brant Robertson

Title:

Early Galaxy Formation and Evolution Through the Eyes of New Facilities

Abstract:

With important new facilities coming online or reaching full operations in the next five years, the 
study of early galaxies in the first few billion years of cosmic history will experience a revolution. 
With the high resolution and remarkable sensitivity of James Webb Space Telescope and 
ALMA, and building on precursor observations with Hubble Space Telescope, we will gain a 
nearly panchromatic view of star forming galaxies during the epoch before the peak in the 
cosmic star formation rate. I will review what we know about high-redshift galaxy populations 
from current facilities, and then discuss what we might learn about the star formation, 
dynamics, and ISM properties of early galaxies. Throughout the talk, I will outline how these 
observations will constrain our current theories of galaxy formation and evolution during the 
epoch before modern galaxies had formed.