We conduct a broad investigation about stellar mass and population diagnostics in order to formulate novel constraints related to the formation and evolution of galaxies from a nearby cluster environment. Our work is powered by the use of stellar population models which transform galaxy colours and/or absorption line strengths into estimates of its stellar properties. As input to such models, we assemble an extensive compilation of age and chemical abundance information for Galactic globular clusters. This compilation allows a confident expansion of these models into new regions of parameter space that promise to refine our knowledge of galactic chemical evolution. We then draw upon a state-of-the-art spectroscopic and photometric survey of the Virgo galaxy cluster in order to constrain spatial variations of the stellar ages, metallicities, and masses within its member galaxies, and their dynamical masses. We interpret these data in the context of the histories of star formation, chemical enrichment, and stellar mass assembly to formulate a broad picture of the build-up of this cluster’s content over time. In it, the giant early-type galaxies formed through highly dissipational processes at early times that built up most of their stellar mass and drew significant amounts of dark matter within their optical radii. Conversely, dwarf early-types experienced environmental processes that quenched their star formation during either the early stages of cluster assembly or upon infall at later times. Somewhat perplexing is our finding that the internal dynamics of these galaxies are largely explained by their stellar masses. Lastly, Virgo spirals also suffer from their dense environment, through ram pressure stripping and/or tidal harrassment. In addition to quenching, these effects leave an imprint on their internal dynamical evolution too. Late-type spirals exhibit evidence of having ejected significant amounts of baryons from their inner regions, likely via energetic feedback events. Rich as our picture of the history of the Virgo cluster has become, real progress in our understanding of this system will truly benefit from future high-resolution cosmological and hydrodynamic simulations of this environment. Such simulations are still in their infancy, but the data assembled here should soon provide their most direct validation. / Thesis (Ph.D, Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-30 23:32:48.575

A unique K-band selected high-redshift spectroscopic dataset (UDSz) is exploited to gain further understanding of galaxy evolution at z > 1. Acquired as part of an ESO Large Programme, this thesis presents the reduction and analysis of a sample of ∼ 450 deep optical spectra of a random 1 in 6 sample of the KAB < 23, z > 1 galaxy population. Based on the final reduced dataset, spectrophotometric modelling of the optical spectra and multi-wavelength photometry available for each galaxy is performed using a combination of single and dual component stellar population models. The stellarmass and age estimates provided by the spectrophotometric modelling are exploited throughout the rest of the thesis to investigate the evolution of massive galaxies at z > 1. Focusing on a K-band bright (K < 21.5) sub-sample in the redshift range 1.3 < z < 1.5 the galaxy size-mass relation has been studied in detailed. In agreement with some previous studies it is found that massive, old, early-type galaxies (ETGs) have characteristic radii a factor ~- 1.5 − 3.0 smaller than their local counterparts at a given stellar-mass. Due to the potential errors in spectrophotometric estimates of the stellarmasses at high redshift velocity dispersion measurements are derived for a sub-sample of massive ETGs at z > 1.3 in order to calculate dynamical mass estimates. To date, only a handful of objects at z > 1.3 have individual velocity dispersion estimates in the literature. Here the largest single sample (13 objects) of velocity dispersion measurements at high redshift is presented. The results for the sub-sample of objects with dynamical mass estimates confirm the results based on stellar mass estimates that high redshift massive systems are more compact than their local counterparts. The fraction of K-band bright objects at high redshift that are passively evolving is calculated with specific star-formation rates from the UV rest-frame continuum, [OII] emission and 24μm data. It is concluded that ∼ 58 ± 10% of the K < 21.5, 1.3 < z < 1.5 galaxy population is passively evolving. Various photometric techniques for separating star-forming and passively evolving galaxies are assessed by exploiting the accurate spectral types derived for the UDSz spectroscopic sample. Popular highredshift selection techniques are shown to fail to effectively select complete samples of passive objects with low levels of contamination. Using detailed information available for the UDSz dataset, various techniques are optimised and then used to estimate the passive fraction from the full UDS photometric catalog. The passive fraction results from the full photometric catalog are found to agree well with the results derived from the UDSz sample. With the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) now starting to produce data, the opportunity has been taken to develop high-redshift galaxy population dividers based on the VISTA filters. Using the first data release from the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey (VVDS D1 field), the passive fractions of K-band limited samples have been estimated to compare with results derived in the UDS. Within the errors the passive fraction estimates in the UDS and VISTA VVDS D1 field are found to agree reasonably well. Finally, composite spectra are used to study the evolution of various different galaxy sub-samples as a function of redshift, age, stellar-mass and specific star-formation rate. This work produces an remarkably clean result, showing that the massive, absolute Kband bright, passively evolving ETGs are always the oldest population, with ages close to the age of the Universe at z ∼ 1.4. In contrast, the late-type, low-mass, star-forming galaxies are always found to be much younger systems. This result strongly supports the downsizing scenario, in which more massive systems complete their stellar-mass assembly before lower-mass counterparts.