Galaxy clusters are the densest large scale structures in the Universe. This makes them ideal laboratories for studying the effect of environment on the formation and evolution of galaxies. To... Show moreGalaxy clusters are the densest large scale structures in the Universe. This makes them ideal laboratories for studying the effect of environment on the formation and evolution of galaxies. To truly understand the role of environment in galaxy evolution it is essential that galaxy clusters are studied across cosmic time, back to when the Universe was still relatively young and galaxy clusters were still in the process of formation. Finding these forming galaxy clusters (or protoclusters) in the early Universe is difficult. One of the ways to do this is by looking at the environment of high-z radio galaxies. These special, very massive galaxies are often at the centre of overdensities that are expected to grow into galaxy clusters. In this thesis I have studied these protoclusters in order to determine what the nature of these structures is and how they evolve and whether there is any indication of environmental in fluence on the protocluster galaxies at such early times. I have also attempted to identify new protoclusters for future research. Show less
Although we have a broad picture of how the universe has evolved from the Big Bang more than 13.7 billion years ago, the details of the formation and evolution of galaxies are still not well... Show moreAlthough we have a broad picture of how the universe has evolved from the Big Bang more than 13.7 billion years ago, the details of the formation and evolution of galaxies are still not well understood. Using a combination of optical and infrared observations called the SIMPLE survey, it is possible to picture galaxies at different stages in their evolution. It appears that the star formation rate per unit mass, the specific star formation rate, has been steadily decreasing for over the last 10 billion years. During this period it was always lower for the most massive galaxies but the rate of change does not seem to be a strong function of mass. Using the specific star formation rate, it is possible to determine the fraction of galaxies that are passively evolving. It appears that 30% of the most massive galaxies already formed the bulk of their stars 10 billion years ago and have been passively evolving at least since then. This measurement can be used as a constraint for models of galaxy evolution. A comparison between such a model and the SIMPLE observations, shows that the models can not predict the correct growth rate through star formation well enough yet. Show less
The first stars formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only a small fraction of its present age. Their radiation transformed the previously cold and neutral... Show moreThe first stars formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only a small fraction of its present age. Their radiation transformed the previously cold and neutral hydrogen that filled intergalactic space into the hot and ionised cosmic plasma that is observed today. This milestone in the history of the Universe is called the epoch of reionisation. Much about reionisation is still unknown. Computer simulations are one of the most promising theoretical tools to study reionisation. The wealth of high-quality data that will soon be provided by the next generation of telescopes, specifically designed to observe the reionisation event, make it a particularly exciting time to perform such simulations. The thesis "Simulating Cosmic Reionisation" presents TRAPHIC, a novel method to include the transport of ionising radiation emitted by the first stars in simulations of reionisation. TRAPHIC (TRAnsport of PHotons In Cones) is one of the first of a new type of radiative transfer methods that allow the accurate and efficient computation of the growth of ionised regions in representative models of the Universe that contain hundreds of millions of stars. First simulations that employ TRAPHIC on the Dutch national supercomputer Huygens demonstrate the importance of the concepts that underly its design. Show less
