Related papers: Interactions and star formation activity in Wolf-R…

The Wolf-Rayet (WR) phenomenon is widespread in astronomy. It involves classical WRs, very massive stars (VMS), WR central stars of planetary nebula CSPN [WRs], and supernovae (SNe). But what is the root cause for a certain type of object…

We combine new CCD UBV photometry and spectroscopy with that from the literature to investigate 19 Magellanic Cloud OB associations that contain Wolf-Rayet (WR) and other types of evolved massive stars. Our spectroscopy reveals a wealth of…

Our new survey for Wolf-Rayet stars in the Magellanic Clouds is only 15% complete but has already found 9 new WRs in the LMC. This suggests that the total WR population in the LMC may be underestimated by 10-40%. Eight of the nine are WNs,…

Aims: Following our comprehensive studies of the WR stars in the Milky Way, we now present spectroscopic analyses of almost all known WN stars in the LMC. Methods: For the quantitative analysis of the wind-dominated emission-line spectra,…

As part of a search for Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in the Magellanic Clouds, we have discovered a new type of WR star in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). These stars have both strong emission lines, as well as He ii and Balmer absorption lines…

Most of the Milky Way's evolved massive stellar population is hidden from view. We can attempt to remedy this situation with near-infrared observations, and in this paper we present our method for detecting Wolf-Rayet stars in highly…

As part of our ongoing Wolf-Rayet (WR) Magellanic Cloud survey, we have discovered 13 new WRs. However, the most exciting outcome of our survey is not the number of new WRs, but their unique characteristics. Eight of our discoveries appear…

The discovery of new Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in our Galaxy via large-scale narrowband optical surveys has been severely limited by dust extinction. Recent improvements in infrared technology have made narrowband-broadband imaging surveys…

The nearby galaxies of the Local Group can act as our laboratories in helping to bridge the gap between theory and observations. In this review we will describe the complications of identifying samples of OB stars, yellow and red…

The WN3/O3 Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars were discovered as part of our survey for WRs in the Magellanic Clouds. The WN3/O3s show the emission lines of a high-excitation WN star and the absorption lines of a hot O-type star, but our prior work has…

We present Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) spectroscopic observations of 95 galaxies from the Arp & Madore (1987) catalogue of peculiar galaxies. These galaxies have been selected because they appear to be in pairs and small groups.…

A subgroup of dwarf galaxies have characteristics of a possible evolutionary transition between star-forming systems and dwarf ellipticals. These systems host significant starbursts in combination with smooth, elliptical outer envelopes and…

Using a code that employs a self-consistent method for computing the effects of photoionization on circumstellar gas dynamics, we model the formation of wind-driven nebulae around massive Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars. Our algorithm incorporates a…

We investigate the burstiness of star formation and the ionizing efficiency of a large sample of galaxies at $0.7 < z < 1.5$ using HST grism spectroscopy and deep ultraviolet (UV) imaging in the GOODS-N and GOODS-S fields. The star…

Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are massive stars that have lost most or all of their hydrogen via powerful stellar winds. Recent observations have indicated that hydrogen-free WR stars have cooler temperatures than those predicted by current…

We present a study of the morphology of star formation and the associated nuclear activity in a sample of 8 closely interacting southern galaxies, which are in different stages of interaction, starting with nearly merged nuclei that have…

The star formation (SF) can be regarded as an engine powering the light emission of spiral galaxies at several wavelengths. SF activity also plays a significant role in the evolution of galaxies. In this thesis we focus on the X-ray…

We present the analysis of a survey of atomic and molecular gas in interacting and merging galaxies (Horellou & Booth 1997). The sample is optically selected and contains all interacting galaxies (~ 60 systems) in a well-defined region of…

In order to quantify the relationship between gas accretion and star formation, we analyse a sample of 29 nearby galaxies from the WHISP survey which contains galaxies with and without evidence for recent gas accretion. We compare combined…

We study the oxygen abundance profiles of the gas-phase components in hydrodynamical simulations of pre-prepared disc galaxies including major mergers, close encounters and isolated configurations. We analyse the evolution of the slope of…