Linking Environment to the Mass Assembly of Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
Tianmu Gao (Australian National University)
Tuesday 21/07/2026 @ 14:00, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro)
In this talk, I will present my Phd research on the role of environment in galaxy stellar mass assembly. I will first discuss how taking cosmic-noon environmental information into account can improve the matching of high-redshift galaxies to their z~0 descendants in cosmological simulations. Furthermore, using JWST spectroscopy of massive quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon from the Blue Jay survey, together with host halo masses from 3D-HST, I will show that environment is not only linked to subsequent mass growth, but also to earlier stages of galaxy formation. Finally, moving to lower redshift, I will introduce ongoing work based on the MUSE Large Programme MAGPI, which targets 56 fields at z~0.3 across a wide range of environments. With a large sample of galaxies with spatially resolved stellar population properties, this project investigates how environment shapes galaxy assembly around 4 Gyr ago. In addition, I will briefly discuss my involvement in projects related to AGN feedback, particularly in the context of local U/LIRGs, as well as potential science cases enabled by future integral-field spectroscopic instruments, such as the MCAO-Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph (MAVIS).