Aspects of Galaxy Formation

Abstract

I describe some of the current challenges in galaxy formation theory with applications to formation of disks and of spheroids. Forthcoming deep surveys of galaxies with Keck and VLT will provide high quality spectra of $\sim 10^5$ galaxies that will probe stellar populations and star formation rates at redshift unity. This will help refine our phenomenological knowledge of galaxy evolution and enable robust predictions to be developed for future breakthroughs in understanding galaxy formation at high redshift that are anticipated with NGST and with the proposed new generation of 30 metre-class telescopes.