Internal kinematics is a novel technique to tackle the faint galaxy excess problem a technique that goes beyond redshift surveys. These surveys can provide information only on the global evolution of a galaxy population, whereas internal kinematics can be used to trace evolution in individual galaxies. The goal of this thesis is to use internal kinematics to probe the nature of distant galaxies and understand the manner in which they evolve into the local galaxy population. As the reader will see, the task is extremely challenging since it involves working at the limits of detection and spatial resolution of current telescopes. This thesis is organized into nine chapters.
Chapter describes faint galaxy models based on luminosity evolution and mergers.
These two chapters are intended to give the reader the background information needed to understand the motivation behind this thesis. Chapter explains how the internal kinematics of distant galaxies can be used to test faint galaxy models. Sample selection, observations and data pre-processing are explained in Chapter . Topics covered in this chapter include the fitting model, the Metropolis algorithm used for finding parameter values, and the implementation of the synthetic rotation curve method within the IRAF environment. Chapter presents the results of the CFHT internal kinematics survey.