From several searches of the area common to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Infrared Deep Sky Survey, we have selected 22 luminous galaxies between z ∼ 0.4 and z ∼ 0.9 that have colors and sizes similar to those of the compact quiescent galaxies at z > 2. By exploring structural parameters and stellar populations, we found that most of these galaxies actually formed most of their stars at z < 2 and are generally less compact than those found at z > 2. Several of these young objects are disk-like or possibly prolate. This lines up with several previous studies which found that massive quiescent galaxies at high redshifts often have disk-like morphologies. If these galaxies were to be confirmed to be disk-like, their formation mechanism must be able to account for both compactness and disks. On the other hand, if these galaxies were to be confirmed to be prolate, the fact that prolate galaxies do not exist in the local universe would indicate that galaxy formation mechanisms have evolved over cosmic time. We also found five galaxies forming over 80% of their stellar masses at z > 2. Three of these galaxies appear to have been modified to have spheroid-like morphologies, in agreement with the scenario of "inside-out" buildup of massive galaxies. The remaining galaxies, SDSS J014355.21+133451.4 and SDSS J115836.93+021535.1, have truly old stellar populations and disk-like morphologies. These two objects would be good candidates for nearly unmodified compact quiescent galaxies from high redshifts that are worth future study.

Massive outflows are known to exist, in the form of extended emission-line regions (EELRs), around about one-third of powerful FR II radio sources. We investigate the origin of these EELRs by studying the emission-line regions around compact-steep-spectrum (CSS) radio galaxies that are younger (10 3 to 10 5 years old) versions of the FR II radio galaxies. We have searched for and analyzed the emission-line regions around 11 CSS sources by taking integral field spectra using GMOS on Gemini North. We fit the [O III] λ5007 line and present the velocity maps for each detected emission-line region. We find, in most cases, that the emission-line regions have multi-component velocity structures with different velocity dispersions and/or flux distributions for each component. The velocity gradients of the emission-line gas are mostly well aligned with the radio axis, suggesting a direct causal link between the outflowing gas and the radio jets. The complex velocity structure may be a result of different driving mechanisms related to the onset of the radio jets. We also present the results from the lineratio diagnostics we used to analyze the ionization mechanism of the extended gas, which supports the scenario where the emission-line regions are ionized by a combination of AGN radiation and shock excitation.

Neutral outflows have been detected in many ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) via the Na I D λλ5890, 5896 absorption-line doublet. For the first time, we have mapped and analyzed the 2-D kinematics of a cool neutral outflow in a ULIRG, F10565+2448, using the integral field unit (IFU) on Gemini North to observe the Na I D feature. At the same time we have mapped the ionized outflow with the [N II] and Hα emission lines. We find a systemic rotation curve that is consistent with the rotation of the molecular disk determined from previous CO observations. The absorption lines show evidence of a nuclear outflow with a radial extent of at least 3 kpc, consistent with previous observations. The strength of the Na I D lines have a strong, spatially resolved correlation with reddening, suggesting that dust is present in the outflow. Surprisingly, the outflow velocities of the neutral gas show a strong asymmetry in the form of a major-axis gradient that is opposite in sign to disk rotation. This is inconsistent with entrained material rotating along with the galaxy or with a tilted minor-axis outflow. We hypothesize that this unusual behavior is due to an asymmetry in the distribution of the ambient gas. We also see evidence of asymmetric ionized outflow in the emissionline velocity map, which appear to be decoupled from the neutral outflow. Our results strengthen the hypothesis that ULIRG outflows differ in morphology from those in more quiescent disk galaxies.

From a search of a portion of the sky covered by the SDSS and UKIDSS databases, we have located 2 galaxies at z ∼ 0.5 that have properties similar to those of the luminous passive compact galaxies found at z ∼ 2.5. From Keck moderate-resolution spectroscopy and laser-guided adaptive-optics imaging of these galaxies, we can begin to put together a more detailed picture of what their high-redshift counterparts might be like. Spectral-synthesis models that fit the u to K photometry also seem to give good fits to the spectral features. From these models, we estimate masses in the range of 3-4 × 10 11 M ⊙ for both galaxies. Under the assumption that these are spheroidal galaxies, our velocity dispersions give estimated masses about a factor of 3 smaller. However, our highresolution imaging data indicate that these galaxies are not normal spheroids, and the interpretation of the kinematic data depends critically on the actual morphologies and the nature of the stellar orbits. While recent suggestions that the population of high-redshift compact galaxies is present locally as the inner regions of local massive elliptical galaxies are quite plausible, the peak mass surface densities of the two galaxies we discuss here appear to be up to a factor of 10 higher than those of the highest density local ellipticals, assuming that our photometric masses are roughly correct. It thus seems possible that some dynamical "puffing-up" of the high-redshift galaxies might still be required in this scenario.

We model the assembly of planets from planetary embryos under the conditions suggested by various scenarios for the formation of the planetary system around the millisecond pulsar B1257+12. We find that the most likely models fall at the low angular momentum end of the proposed range. Models that invoke supernova fallback produce such disks, although we find that a solar composition disk produces a more likely evolution than one composed primarily of heavy elements. Furthermore, we find that dust sedimentation must occur rapidly as the disk cools, in order that the solid material be confined to a sufficiently narrow range of radii. A quantitative comparison between the observations and the best-fit models shows that the simulations can reproduce the observed eccentricities and masses, but have difficulty reproducing the compactness of the pulsar planet system. Finally, we examine the results of similar studies of solar system terrestrial planet accumulation and discuss what can be learned from the comparison.