The role of interactions in the formation and evolution of galaxies

This dissertation presents results from a broad study of the role of interactions between galaxies in their formation and evolution. We focus on three broad themes: (1) morphological signatures of past interactions in the outer disks of spiral galaxies, (2) the role of mergers in the self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes, and (3) the nature and properties of merger-driven starbursts at high redshift. In (1), we present interaction-driven models for the production of antitruncated stellar disks and dynamically cold rings around spiral galaxies. In (2), we present simulations for three different modes of supermassive black hole fueling--major mergers, minor mergers, and disk instabilities--and find that all three lie along the observed black holes fundamental plane. Furthermore, while major and minor mergers lie along the same projected correlations, supermassive black holes grown via disk instabilities show a systematic normalization offset--a result that agrees with observations of pseudobulges and barred systems. That most local objects lie along the merger correlations suggest that mergers are the dominant channel for growing supermassive black holes. Finally, in (3) we show results from an extensive observational survey of high-redshift, infrared luminous, merger-driven starbursts. First, we use high resolution interferometric imaging of submillimeter-selected galaxies in the far-infrared directly to obtain accurate positions and dust morphologies. These results suggest that submillimeter-selected galaxies are starburst-dominated, and persistent to higher redshift ( z > 4) than radio-selected spectroscopic surveys would suggest. Second, we obtain millimeter photometry of near-infrared selected starbursts at z ∼ 2 to constrain their far-infrared luminosity and dust properties, and find that the far-infrared/radio correlation persists in the very different environment at high redshift.