› The Interplay Between Local and Global Processes in Galaxies

The Interplay Between Local and Global Processes in Galaxies
Rationale


Galaxy evolution is complex, with multiple processes acting on galaxies to shape them into the entities we see today. Many of these processes play out on scales much smaller than the entire galaxy. They also work with varying effectiveness at different places in the galaxies, making it imperative to study galaxies over their full extent. Studying galaxies on different spatial scales is thus one way to make significant progress in the quest to understand galaxy
evolution.

In the last decade, improvements in technical observing capabilities have progressed galaxy evolution science into the area of spatially resolved spectroscopic surveys. It is thus possible to study the emergence of global galaxy properties from the local, kpc-scale distribution of these properties within the galaxies at essentially any wavelength, for large samples of galaxies and over a significant fraction of each galaxies total mass. Only a few relevant instruments and projects can be named here as particular prototypes: Atlas3D, CALIFA, SAMI, MaNGA for the optical, Spitzer and Herschel for the infrared, (e-)VLA and ALMA for the radio, Galex for the UV, Chandra and XMM in the X-ray, and near-infrared IFS and MUSE at higher redshifts. At the same time, progress in our theoretical understanding of galaxy evolution has not only produced a background framework to interpret the new data. Even more directly, cosmological hydrodynamic simulations are yielding large samples of galaxies that could be studied in the same way as the observed universe.


Of course, not all processes that are important for galaxy evolution are kind enough to work on the scales determined by instrumentation. Scientists working in related fields on adjacent spatial scales are therefore also encouraged to attend. This concerns in particular the emergence of star formation laws from physics on smaller scale than 1 kpc, galaxy environments, the circumgalactic and intergalactic medium, as well as the cosmological framework.

Finally, the conference will also coincide with the third and full data release of the CALIFA survey, which occupies a unique niche in the area of integral field spectroscopic surveys in terms of the best combined signal to noise and spatial coverage and will do so for a few years to come.

This conference focuses on bringing together scientists working on local and global properties of galaxies. It emphasizes physical connections and aims to bridge field boundaries imposed by difference in wavelength, differences in analysis method or between observational and theoretical approaches.

The conference theme will be broken up into a number of session with tentative titles:
- Scaling relations (for entire galaxies, only local, and both)
- Quenching processes (AGN, starvation, merging, stellar feedback, incl scales larger than a galaxy CGM/IGM)
- Triggering star formation (accretion, merging, SF stochasticity, incl smaller scales than 1 kpc))
- Mass assembly and chemical evolution (what SFHs and elemental abundances in gas and stars tell us about
mass assembly and star formation)
- Dynamic (baryon fractions, IMF variations, orbital structures, incl scales larger than a galaxy)