Speaker
Paola Popesso
(TUM)
Description
The evolution of the star formation activity and, thus, the assembly of the stellar content of galaxies remain at the heart of galaxy evolution studies. It is now rather well established that most galaxies form stars at a “normal” level, dictated mainly by their stellar mass and regulated by secular processes. This is seen as a main sequence (MS) in the star formation rate(SFR)-stellar mass plane. The normalization of this sequence declines with time since z~2. However, we do not yet fully understand the processes that control this evolution, nor how individual galaxies evolve relative to it. While the existence of a MS may seem to suggest a simple and universal mode of star formation in galaxies (on average), the deviations indicate a more complex relation between galaxy SFRs, gas reservoir, external and internal mechanisms triggering or halting star formation. In this context Paola will discuss in particular the role of the "environment quenching" as the main external mechanism able to suppress the galaxy star formation activity.
