Overview 



Massive "red and dead" galaxies have been well-studied since the time of Hubble, yet their origin and evolution remain perplexing.  While seemingly straightforward in their featureless elliptical morphology and uniformly old stellar population, numerous recent lines of investigation have shown that these galaxies contain a myriad of complexities that belie their simple appearance.  These include intermittent bursts of star formation, large and active black holes, a hot gaseous halo whose thermal and chemical state may hold clues to feedback processes, and perhaps even a varying initial mass function.  Theoretically, these objects have likewise provided many challenges, such as explaining their rapid evolution in surface density, their emergence at a particular mass scale, their abundance patterns, and the role of the central black hole in quenching star formation.  This workshop aims to bring together observers and theorists working on various facets of massive galaxies including their progenitors and evolution from early epochs until today, their circumgalactic gas, their stellar populations and abundances, and their supermassive black holes, in a focused and discussion-oriented meeting that will showcase forefront observations and state of the art theoretical models addressing the longstanding puzzle of the origin of massive galaxies.

This is the third in a series of workshops sponsored by the Centre for Extragalactic Theory based in Cape Town, South Africa.  This one will be held at the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate, at the entrance to Kruger Park, one of the premier game reserves in the world featuring South Africa's famous Big Five. 

2nd CET Workshop:  Reionization: A Multi-Wavelength Approach

1st CET Workshop: The Emergence of Disk Galaxies