A study of submillimetre galaxies with the Herschel Space Observatory

This work uses data from the Herschel Space Observatory and complementary surveys to study how the properties of star forming galaxies have changed over a large redshift range. Using the likelihood ratio technique, infrared counterparts from the VIKING survey are found for a large sample of Herschel ATLAS galaxies over the three GAMA fields. I find that approximately half of all Hershcel ATLAS galaxies have a reliable VIKING counterpart. I find that the fraction of Herschel sources with a reliable VIKING counterparts remains above 30% for Herschel sources at redshifts above z = 3, beyond the VIKING detection limit. We propose that this is the result of observing a large number of gravitationally lensed sources in the Herschel ATLAS survey. I match a sample of Herschel ATLAS sources to the optical Subaru Deep Field (SDF) catalogue, using radio data as an intermediary step to attain accurate positions. I compare this technique with matching Herschel ATLAS sources directly to the SDF catalogue and find that of the common matched sources, 6% of Herschel ATLAS sources are matched to two different SDF sources. I study the star forming properties of Herschel ATLAS and Herschel-GOODS galaxies. I study the two galaxy samples in terms of the galaxy main sequence, Kennicutt-Schmidt relation and the K magnitude-redshift relation. I find that the Herschel galaxies are relatively homogeneous. There is little evidence that the starburst phase of galaxies plays a large role in the star formation history of Herschel galaxies. I find that the star formation efficiency of our starburst galaxies is on average the same as main sequence galaxies, implying that starburst galaxies form more stars due an increased gas mass. The optical images of the Herschel-GOODS sample of galaxies are decomposed in to their bulge and disc components. I find that 67% feature a bulge which is best fit with a low Sersic index profile, suggesting the majority of the population feature a disc-like or pseudo-bulge. I see little evidence of a correlation between the properties of the bulge and the overall star forming properties of the galaxy.