Related papers: Holes within galaxies: the egg or the hen?
High-resolution N--body simulations show a remarkable similarity in the structure of dark matter halos formed through dissipationless hierarchical clustering. Independent of halo mass, power spectrum, and cosmological parameters, the…
We develop a model for the outer gravitationally unstable regions of accretion disks around massive black holes, for primeval or solar abundances. First we study star formation and evolution in a purely gaseous marginally unstable disk, and…
Recent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have suggested the existence of over-massive black holes (OMBHs) in high-redshift galaxies. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism for the formation of OMBHs, based on the…
Early-type galaxies (ETGs) are observed to be more compact, on average, at $z \gtrsim 2$ than at $z\simeq 0$, at fixed stellar mass. Recent observational works suggest that such size evolution could reflect the similar evolution of the host…
We show that hard encounters in the central regions of globular clusters embedded in dark matter (DM) haloes necessarily lead to the formation of gravitationally-bound stellar envelopes that extend far beyond the nominal tidal radius of the…
In this paper we review the main and the most recent evidence for the presence of a core radius in the distribution of the dark matter around spiral galaxies. Their rotation curves, coadded according to the galaxy luminosity, conform to an…
We explore a scenario where metal poor globular clusters (GCs) form at the centres of their own dark matter halos in the early universe before reionization. This hypothesis leads to predictions about the abundance, distribution and…
We investigate the nature of star formation in gas-rich galaxies at $z > 7$ forming in a markedly overdense region, in the whereabouts of a massive virialized halo already exceeding $10^{12}$ M$_{\odot}$. We find that not only the primary…
We explore how the co-evolution of massive black holes (MBHs) and galaxies is affected by environmental effects, addressing in particular MBHs hosted in the central galaxies of clusters (we will refer to these galaxies in general as 'CGs').…
We study the evolution of global shapes of galaxies using cosmological simulations. The shapes refer to the components of dark matter (DM), stars and gas at the stellar half-mass radius. Most galaxies undergo a characteristic compaction…
We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to show that a significant fraction of the gas in high redshift rare massive halos falls nearly radially to their very centre on extremely short timescales. This process results in the…
New measurements of the stellar-mass deficits at the centers of luminous elliptical galaxies are presented. These were derived considering the following observational facts. Firstly, ``core'' galaxies, which are thought to have had their…
We review the observed demographics and inferred evolution of supermassive black holes (BHs) found by dynamical modeling of spatially resolved kinematics. Most influential was the discovery of a tight correlation between BH mass and the…
We study the early dynamical evolution of young, dense star clusters using Monte Carlo simulations for systems with up to N~10^7 stars. Rapid mass segregation of massive main-sequence stars and the development of the Spitzer instability can…
A new mechanism describing the formation of protogalaxies is proposed, which is based on the second- order phase transition in the inflation stage and the domain wall formation upon the end of inflation. The presence of closed domain walls…
In this paper we report results of collisional N-body simulations of the dynamical evolution of equal-mass star clusters containing a massive central black hole. Each cluster is composed of between 5,000 to 180,000 stars together with a…
We incorporate a simple scheme for the growth of supermassive black holes into semi-analytic models that follow the formation and evolution of galaxies in a cold dark matter dominated Universe. We assume that supermassive black holes are…
The dynamical evolution of super star clusters (SSCs) moving in the background of dark matter halo has been investigated as a possible event causing the observed correlation between the mass of galactic bulge, $M_{bulge}$, and the mass of…
We propose that the growth of supermassive black holes is associated mainly with brief episodes of highly super-Eddington infall of gas ("hyperaccretion"). This gas is not swallowed in real time, but forms an envelope of matter around the…
According to the now strongly supported concordance $\Lambda$CDM model, galaxies may be grossly described as a luminous component embedded in a dark matter halo. The density profile of these mass dominating haloes may be determined by N -…