We use the deep CANDELS observations in the GOODS North and South fields to revisit the correlations between stellar mass (M-*), star formation rate (SFR) and morphology, and to introduce a fourth dimension, the mass-weighted stellar age, in galaxies at 1.2 < z < 4. We do this by making new measures of M-*, SFR, and stellar age thanks to an improved SED fitting procedure that allows various star formation history for each galaxy. Like others, we find that the slope of the main sequence (MS) of star formation in the (M-*; SFR) plane bends at high mass. We observe clear morphological differences among galaxies across the MS, which also correlate with stellar age. At all redshifts, galaxies that are quenching or quenched, and thus old, have high Sigma(1) (the projected density within the central 1 kpc), while younger, star-forming galaxies span a much broader range of Sigma(1), which includes the high values observed for quenched galaxies, but also extends to much lower values. As galaxies age and quench, the stellar age and the dispersion of Sigma(1) for fixed values of M* shows two different regimes: one at the low-mass end, where quenching might be driven by causes external to the galaxies; the other at the high-mass end, where quenching is driven by internal causes, very likely the mass given the low scatter of Sigma(1) (mass quenching). We suggest that the monotonic increase of central density as galaxies grow is one manifestation of a more general phenomenon of structural transformation that galaxies undergo as they evolve.

We present a spectroscopic survey of high-redshift, luminous galaxies over four square degrees on the sky, aiming to build a large and homogeneous sample of Ly alpha emitters (LAEs) at z approximate to 5.7 and 6.5, and Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at 5.5 < z < 6.8. The fields that we choose to observe are well studied, such as by the Subaru XMM-Newton Deep Survey and COSMOS. They have deep optical imaging data in a series of broad and narrow bands, allowing for the efficient selection of galaxy candidates. Spectroscopic observations are being carried out using the multi-object spectrograph M2FS on the Magellan Clay telescope. M2FS is efficient enough to identify high-redshift galaxies, owing to its 256 optical fibers deployed over a circular field of view 30' in diameter. We have observed similar to 2.5 square degrees. When the program is completed, we expect to identify more than 400 bright LAEs at z approximate to 5.7 and 6.5, and a substantial number of LBGs at z >= 6. This unique sample will be used to study a variety of galaxy properties and to search for large protoclusters. Furthermore, the statistical properties of these galaxies will be used to probe cosmic reionization. We describe the motivation, program design, target selection, and M2FS observations. We also outline our science goals, and present a sample of the brightest LAEs at z approximate to 5.7 and 6.5. This sample contains 32 LAEs with Ly alpha luminosities higher than 10(43) erg s(-1). A few of them reach >= 3 x 10(43) erg s(-1), comparable to the two most luminous LAEs known at z >= 6, "CR7" and "COLA1." These LAEs provide ideal targets to study extreme galaxies in the distant universe.

We can define Delayed Galaxies as a class of rare galaxies that maintained the bulk of their gas for most of the age of the universe following the initial formation of their disks, with little or no star formation. Invisible galaxies and Malin 1 type low-surface-brightness galaxies qualify as class members. Rare examples among interacting galaxies show that collisions can restart the stalled evolution of such galaxies, and suggest that other members of the Delayed class can be found among interacting systems with vigorous current star formation.

A major goal of the field of Galactic archeology is to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way disk. Stars migrate to different Galactic radii throughout their lifetimes, often leaving little dynamical signature of their initial orbits. Therefore, we need to look at the archaeological record preserved in stellar chemical compositions, which is indicative of their birth environment. In this thesis, we use the measurable properties of stars (chemical compositions and ages) to reconstruct the Milky Way disk's past. First, using hydrodynamical simulations, we find that a star's birth radius and age are linked to its chemical abundances. Subsequently, we learn that even with current-day measurement uncertainty and sample sizes, chemical abundances of Milky Way stars provide a route to reconstructing its formation over time. Extending the insights from hydrodynamical simulations to 30,000 stars observed across the Milky Way disk in the APOGEE survey reveals the importance of using the high-dimensional chemical abundance space. Specifically, we determine that we can use groups of chemically similar stars with 19 measured abundances to trace different underlying formation conditions. Using the high-dimensional abundance data for 10,000 stars from two spectroscopic surveys, APOGEE and GALAH, we empirically describe the chemical abundance trends across a vast radial extent of the Milky Way disk. To do this, we employ a novel approach of quantifying radial variations for individual abundances conditioned on supernovae enrichment history. This enables us to assess the information content in each of the 15 abundances examined and capture the fine-grained signatures in the disk's chemical evolution history. This thesis outlines the potential of using stellar chemistry to trace different evolutionary events of the Milky Way disk, particularly in a time where survey data sample size and precision are growing rapidly.

L'époque de la réionisation, qui s'étend pendant le premier milliard d'années de l'Univers, correspond à la période où les premières étoiles et galaxies apparaissent. Dans ce contexte, l'enjeu majeur de cette thèse est d'étudier la formation de ces premières structures et leur rétroaction radiative sur leur environnement. Pour cela, j'utilise différentes méthodes de simulations numériques permettant de modéliser le transfert radiatif dans les galaxies, dans un cadre cosmologique.En particulier, les plus petites galaxies seraient celles qui apportent la majorité des photons nécessaires à ioniser l'Univers. J'explore cette hypothèse dans une première partie à l'aide de simulations radio-hydrodynamiques avec le code RAMSES-RT, ciblant trois petites galaxies avec une très haute résolution spatiale et temporelle. Je me suis d'abord intéressé aux mécanismes régulant la production et le transfert de photons ionisants dans les galaxies, et j'ai montré que les explosions de supernovae en sont un facteur essentiel. Ensuite, j'ai exploré les propriétés observables dérivées à partir de ces simulations.Dans un second temps, j'ai développé une extension au code Monte Carlo de transfert radiatif MCLya prenant en compte la polarisation du rayonnement et l'émission diffuse dans une simulation. J'ai utilisé ce code pour post-traiter une simulation d'un blob Lyman-alpha, une source étendue d'émission Lyman-alpha, et étudier ses propriétés de polarisation à l'aide de pseudo-observations. Contrairement à ce qui était proposé précédemment, j'ai pu montrer que la polarisation n'était pas un indicateur aussi utile qu'espéré pour tracer l'origine des photons Lyman-alpha / The Epoch of Reionisation, which spans during the first billion year of te Universe, corresponds to the period during which the first stars and galaxy form. In this context, the main topic of this thesis is to study the formation of those early structures and their radiative feedback to their environment. For this purpose, I use various numerical simulations tools designed to model the radiative transfer in galaxies in a cosmological framework.More specifically, I look at very small galaxies, which are believed to contribute the bulk of the photons required to reionise the Universe. I explore this idea using radiative hydrodynamics simulations performed with RAMSES-RT, focusing on three small galaxies with a very high spatial and temporal resolution. I first detail the mechanism that regulate te production and escape of ionising photons in galaxies, and I show that supernovae explosions are a crucial element for this regulation. I then started to investigate the observable properties of those galaxies.In a second part of my thesis, I developped an extension to the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code MCLya to take light polarisation into account and to model the diffuse emission. I applied this code to post-process the simulation of a Lyman-alpha blob (an extended Lyman-alpha source), and to study its polarisation properties with mock observations. Contrary to what was suggested before, I showed that polarisation is not a strong tracer of the origin of Lyman-alpha photons

L'objectif de mon travail de thèse a consisté à tenter de comprendre quels sont les mécanismes principaux à l'origine de la formation d'étoiles dans les galaxies au cours des derniers dix milliards d'années. Alors qu'il avait été proposé dans le passé que le rôle des fusions de galaxies était dominant pour expliquer l'allumage de la formation d'étoiles dans les galaxies lointaines formant leurs étoiles à de très grands taux, des études plus récentes ont au contraire mis en évidence des lois d'échelles reliant le taux de formation d'étoiles des galaxies à leur masse stellaire ou masse de gaz. La faible dispersion de ces lois semblait être en contradiction avec l'idée d'épisodes stochastiques violents de formation stellaire liés à des interactions, mais plutôt en accord avec une nouvelle vision de l'histoire des galaxies où celles-ci sont nourries de manière continue en gaz intergalactique.Nous nous sommes particulièrement intéressés à l'une de ces lois d'échelles, la relation entre le taux de formation d'étoiles (SFR) et la masse stellaire des galaxies, appelées communément la séquence principale des galaxies à formation d'étoiles. Nous avons étudié cette séquence principale, SFR-M*, en fonction de la morphologie et d'autres paramètres physiques comme le rayon, la couleur, la clumpiness. Le but étant de comprendre l'origine de la dispersion de cette relation en lien avec les processus physiques responsables de cette séquence afin d'identifier le mode principal de formation d'étoile gouvernant cette séquence. Ce travail a nécessité une approche multi-longueurs d'ondes ainsi que l'utilisation de simulations de profils de galaxies pour distinguer les différents types morphologiques de galaxies impliqués dans la séquence principale. / The goal of my PhD study consists at attempt to understand what are the main processes at the origin of the star formation in the galaxies over the last 10 billions years. While it was proposed in the past that merging of galaxies has a dominant role to explain the triggering of the star formation in the distant galaxies having high star formation rates, in the opposite, more recent studies revealed scaling laws linking the star formation rate in the galaxies to their stellar mass or their gas mass. The small dispersion of these laws seems to be in contradiction with the idea of powerful stochastic events due to interactions, but rather in agreement with the new vision of galaxy history where the latter are continuously fed by intergalactic gas. We were especially interested in one of this scaling law, the relation between the star formation (SFR) and the stellar mass (M*) of galaxies, commonly called the main sequence of star forming galaxies. We studied this main sequence, SFR-M*, in function of the morphology and other physical parameters like the radius, the colour, the clumpiness. The goal was to understand the origin of the sequence’s dispersion related to the physical processes underlying this sequence in order to identify the main mode of star formation controlling this sequence. This work needed a multi-wavelength approach as well as the use of galaxies profile simulation to distinguish between the different galaxy morphological types implied in the main sequence.

We use cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to study the impact of out-flows and radiative feedback on high-redshift galaxies. For outflows, we consider simulations that assume (i) no winds, (ii) a .constant-wind. model in which the mass-loading factor and outflow speed are constant, and (iii) "momentum driven" winds in which both parameters vary smoothly with mass. In order to treat radiative feedback, we develop a moment-based radiative transfer technique that operates in both post-processing and coupled radiative hydrodynamic modes. We first ask how outflows impact the broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of six observed reionization-epoch galaxies. Simulations reproduce five regardless of the outflow prescription, while the sixth suggests an unusually bursty star formation history. We conclude that (i) simulations broadly account for available constraints on reionization-epoch galaxies, (ii) individual SEDs do not constrain outflows, and (iii) SED comparisons efficiently isolate objects that challenge simulations. We next study how outflows impact the galaxy mass metallicity relation (MZR). Momentum-driven outflows uniquely reproduce observations at z = 2. In this scenario, galaxies obey two equilibria: (i) The rate at which a galaxy processes gas into stars and outflows tracks its inflow rate; and (ii) The gas enrichment rate owing to star formation balances the dilution rate owing to inflows. Combining these conditions indicates that the MZR is dominated by the (instantaneous) variation of outflows with mass, with more-massive galaxies driving less gas into outflows per unit stellar mass formed. Turning to radiative feedback, we use post-processing simulations to study the topology of reionization. Reionization begins in overdensities and then .leaks. directly into voids, with filaments reionizing last owing to their high density and low emissivity. This result conflicts with previous findings that voids ionize last. We argue that it owes to the uniqely-biased emissivity field produced by our star formation prescriptions, which have previously been shown to reproduce numerous post-reionization constraints. Finally, preliminary results from coupled radiative hydrodynamic simulations indicate that reionization suppresses the star formation rate density by at most 10.20% by z = 5. This is much less than previous estimates, which we attribute to our unique reionization topology although confirmation will have to await more detailed modeling.

We report the detection of diffuse Ly alpha emission, or Lya halos (LAHs), around star-forming galaxies at z approximate to 3.78 and 2.66 in the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey Bootes field. Our samples consist of a total of similar to 1400 galaxies, within two separate regions containing spectroscopically confirmed galaxy overdensities. They provide a unique opportunity to investigate how the LAH characteristics vary with host galaxy large-scale environment and physical properties. We stack Ly alpha images of different samples defined by these properties and measure their median LAH sizes by decomposing the stacked Ly alpha radial profile into a compact galaxy-like and an extended halo-like component. We find that the exponential scale-length of LAHs depends on UV continuum and Ly alpha luminosities, but not on Ly alpha equivalent widths or galaxy overdensity parameters. The full samples, which are dominated by low UV-continuum luminosity Lya emitters (M-UV greater than or similar to -21), exhibit LAH sizes of 5-6 kpc. However, the most UV- or Ly alpha-luminous galaxies have more extended halos with scale-lengths of 7-9 kpc. The stacked Ly alpha radial profiles decline more steeply than recent theoretical predictions that include the contributions from gravitational cooling of infalling gas and from low-level star formation in satellites. However, the LAH extent matches what one would expect for photons produced in the galaxy and then resonantly scattered by gas in an outflowing envelope. The observed trends of LAH sizes with host galaxy properties suggest that the physical conditions of the circumgalactic medium (covering fraction, H I column density, and outflow velocity) change with halo mass and/or star formation rates.

We present Atacama Large Millimeter Array [C-I](1 - 0) (rest frequency 492 GHz) observations for a sample of 13 strongly lensed dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) originally discovered at 1.4 mm in a blank-field survey by the South Pole Telescope (SPT). We compare these new data with available [C-I] observations from the literature, allowing a study of the interstellar medium (ISM) properties of similar to 30 extreme DSFGs spanning a redshift range 2 < z < 5. Using the [C-I] line as a tracer of the molecular ISM, we find a mean molecular gas mass for SPT-DSFGs of 6.6 x 10(10) M-circle dot. This is in tension with gas masses derived via low-J (CO)-C-12 and dust masses; bringing the estimates into accordance requires either (a) an elevated CO-to-H-2 conversion factor for our sample of alpha(CO) similar to 2.5 and a gas-to-dust ratio similar to 200, or (b) an high carbon abundance X-CI similar to 7 x 10(-5). Using observations of a range of additional atomic and molecular lines (including [C-I], [C-II] and multiple transitions of CO), we use a modern photodissociation region code (3(D)-PDR) to assess the physical conditions (including the density, UV radiation field strength and gas temperature) within the ISM of the DSFGs in our sample. We find that the ISM within our DSFGs is characterized by dense gas permeated by strong UV fields. We note that previous efforts to characterize photodissociation region regions in DSFGs may have significantly under-estimated the density of the ISM. Combined, our analysis suggests that the ISM of extreme dusty starbursts at high redshift consists of dense, carbon- rich gas not directly comparable to the ISM of starbursts in the local Universe.

The fraction of ionizing photons escaping from high-redshift star-forming galaxies is a key obstacle in evaluating whether galaxies were the primary agents of cosmic reionization. We previously proposed using the covering fraction of low-ionization gas, measured via deep absorption-line spectroscopy, as a proxy. We now present a significant update, sampling seven gravitationally lensed sources at 4 < z < 5. We show that the absorbing gas in our sources is spatially inhomogeneous, with a median covering fraction of 66%. Correcting for reddening according to a dust-in-cloud model, this implies an estimated absolute escape fraction of similar or equal to 19% +/- 6%. With possible biases and uncertainties, collectively we find that the average escape fraction could be reduced to no less than 11%, excluding the effect of spatial variations. For one of our lensed sources, we have sufficient signal-tonoise ratio to demonstrate the presence of such spatial variations and scatter in its dependence on the Ly alpha equivalent width, consistent with recent simulations. If this source is typical, our lower limit to the escape fraction could be reduced by a further factor similar or equal to 2. Across our sample, we find a modest anticorrelation between the inferred escape fraction and the local star formation rate, consistent with a time delay between a burst and leaking Lyman continuum photons. Our analysis demonstrates considerable variations in the escape fraction, consistent with being governed by the small-scale behavior of star-forming regions, whose activities fluctuate over short timescales. This supports the suggestion that the escape fraction may increase toward the reionization era when star formation becomes more energetic and burst-like.