Astro2020: Empirically Constraining Galaxy Evolution

Understand

Over the past decade, empirical constraints on the galaxy-dark matter halo connection have significantly advanced our understanding of galaxy evolution.

• Past techniques have focused on connections between halo properties and galaxy stellar mass and/or star formation rates.
• Empirical techniques in the next decade will link halo assembly histories with galaxies' circumgalactic media, supermassive black holes, morphologies, kinematics, sizes, colors, metallicities, and transient rates.
• Uncovering these links will resolve many critical uncertainties in galaxy formation and will enable much higher-fidelity mock catalogs essential for interpreting observations.