Traditional theory suggests an inside-out formation process, where dense central regions form first due to rapid gas cooling, followed by slower development of outer regions. However, I focus on an intriguing counterexample: BreakBRD (Break Bulge, Red Disk) galaxies discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey that exhibit outside-in formation, characterized by younger centers (indicated by 4000 Angstrom breaks) and older, optically red disks. These galaxies, spanning diverse masses and environmental conditions, represent a critical transitional state in star formation, making them ideal laboratories for understanding non-standard galaxy growth mechanisms.

I use the ARCES spectrograph on the 3.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory to obtain high-resolution spectra that isolate outflow contributions to emission, enabling calculations of mass and metal outflow rates that can be correlated with host galaxy properties.

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) is multiphase diffuse gas around galaxies. The low density, and high ionization, makes it challenging to observe. The triply ionized carbon doublet ([C IV]) traces the warm phase and is most often observed via absorption from background quasars. The Astrophysics Miniature UV Spatial Spectrometer (AMUSS) is a NASA small mission explorer (SMEX) which aims to map CGM in galaxies by tracking C IV emission around them. I used existing CIV column density measurements from absorption and used analytical models to predict the intensity of gas at various temperatures and densities that AMUSS would be sensitive to based on current instrument specifications.

I studied spatial clustering of Lyman Alpha Emitting galaxies (LAEs) in the One-hundred-deg^2 DECam (Dark Energy Camera) Imagining in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey. I calculated initial angular and spatial correlation functions for LAEs at redshifts of z = 2.4, 3.1, and 4.5 in the COSMOS field. Using measurements from the correlation functions I calculated the mass of a dark matter halo a typical LAE would reside in, dark matter halo bias, and halo occupation fraction at each redshift. I was able to show that as redshift decreased, dark matter halo mass and bias increased, which was in agreement with other lyman alpha emitter surveys across a wide range of redshifts.