Galaxy Evolution: Internally or Externally Driven?

M. L. Balogh, R. G. Bower

Published 2002-07-17Version 1

The globally-averaged star formation rate in the Universe has been steadily declining since at least z~1. This may be due either to very local processes operating within the average galaxy, or to external, environmental effects. Specifically, the build-up of structure may be responsible for terminating star formation in some galaxies and thus decreasing the global average. We summarize our previous and ongoing work to distinguish between these possibilities, by determining the average star formation rate as a function of redshift and environment, out to z=0.5.