In recent years, the combination of dedicated HST programs on lensing massive clusters (CLASH, HFF) and extensive VLT spectroscopy (particularly with the MUSE integral-field spectrograph), has led to the effective exploitation of these systems as gravitational telescopes and accurate probes of the inner mass distribution of dark matter (DM) halos. In addition, these data together with time...
Determining the amount of ionizing radiation from early galaxies is key to understanding the Epoch of Reionization. One of the most robust proxies for Lyman-continuum (LyC) emission is the peak separation of Lyman-alpha (Lya) emission. To achieve such measurements a resolution of R> 5000 is ideal. MAVIS will detect Lya to z>7.2 with the added bonus of AO resolving Lya blobs and compact LAEs at...
Disk galaxies have changed dramatically over the past 12 Gyr, with disk velocity dispersions falling by an order of magnitude from ~100 km/s to 10 km/s. However the rate of this change is unconstrained at z~0.2-0.6 where models predict that star forming galaxies are settling into a more secular phase than the violent disk instability phase preceding it at z≥1. During this key epoch the main...
The synergy between space and ground-based observations, as well as theoretical and numerical modeling, transformed our view of galaxy formation during the past decade, and progress is expected to accelerate with next generation facilities. I will review the current status of the field, highlighting in particular progress thanks to Hubble WFC3 observations, and discuss opportunities and...
Relic galaxies, i.e., massive (> 5 * 10^10 solar masses), compact (sizes < 2 kpc) and old galaxies which have formed most of their stars in a short time are the remnants of high-z red nuggets. Most of the high-z galaxies are supposed to merge with smaller companions and systematically increase their size becoming the big monsters in the local Universe. But, due to the stochastic nature of...
We present detailed measurements of the stellar specific angular momentum ($j_*$) of ten star-forming galaxies at $z\sim1.5-2$ using integral field spectroscopic data at high and low spatial resolutions. We developed and tested a code that simultaneously models the adaptive optics (AO) assisted observations from OSIRIS/SINFONI along with their natural seeing counterparts from KMOS at spatial...
In the local Universe we have made comparisons between galaxies from the SAMI galaxy survey and dynamical models. Based on kinematic measurements, these comparisons show that the transition between spirals and S0s (or star forming to passive disks) cannot be dominated by disk-fading, but that intrinsic dynamical evolution must take place either during or after the quenching happens...
Compact UV-luminous galaxies showing extreme emission-line properties, such as the “Green Pea” (GP) galaxies at z~0.1-0.4, are possibly the best low-redshift analogs of primeval galaxies driving reionization in the early universe. The direct detection of Lyman continuum (LyC) photons in most GPs observed with HST-COS in the far-UV has opened a wide new avenue to study the main physical...
Assessing the impact of dusty galaxies to the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD) is crucial for our understanding of galaxy evolution. Recently ALMA blind surveys have revealed the existence of galaxies unseen from the deepest UV to near-IR images ("HST-dark"), showing a counterpart only in Spitzer/IRAC. The finding of HST-dark galaxies indicates the existence of a prominent population...
