Related papers: Dissipation and the Fundamental Plane: Observation…
The structural properties of elliptical galaxies are consistent with their formation in a merging hierarchy. In this picture, the role of gaseous processes and dissipation decreased with increasing mass creating preferentially rotationally…
We report on the discovery of a new correlation between global parameters of the hot interstellar gas in elliptical galaxies. We reanalyze archival Chandra data for 30 normal early-type systems, removing the contributions of resolved and…
We present a formalism to infer the presence of merging by comparing the time derivative of the observed galaxy stellar mass function (MF) to the change of the MF expected from the star formation rate (SFR) in galaxies as a function of mass…
The current status of both the observational evidence and the theory of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is reviewed, with particular attention to the two basic, apparently universal features shown by all observations of nearby…
Context: Using the Illustris-1 and IllustrisTNG-100 simulations we investigate the properties of the Fundamental Plane (FP), that is the correlation between the effective radius Re, the effective surface intensity Ie and the central stellar…
I review theoretical models of star formation and how they apply across the stellar mass spectrum. Several distinct theories are under active study for massive star formation, especially Turbulent Core Accretion, Competitive Accretion and…
From a large sample of $\approx 170,000$ local SDSS galaxies, we find that the Fundamental Metallicity Relation (FMR) has an overabundance of outliers, compared to what would be expected from a Gaussian distribution of residuals, with…
Recent low-redshift observations have attempted to determine the star formation histories of elliptical galaxies by tracking correlations between the stellar population parameters (age and metallicity) and the structural parameters that…
Stars do not form continuously distributed over star forming galaxies. They form in star clusters of different masses. This nature of clustered star formation is taken into account in the theory of the integrated galactic stellar initial…
The relation between early type galaxy size, surface brightness and velocity dispersion, "the fundamental plane", has long been understood as resulting from equilibrium in their largely pressure supported stellar dynamics. The dissipation…
Near-infrared imaging data on 251 early-type galaxies in clusters and groups are used to construct the near-infrared Fundamental Plane (FP) r_eff ~ sigma_0^1.53 <Sigma_K>_eff^-0.79. The slope of the FP therefore departs from the virial…
The properties of elliptical galaxies are broadly consistent with simulated remnants of gas-rich mergers between spirals, motivating more detailed studies of the imprint of this formation mechanism on the remnant distribution function. Gas…
(Abridged) Interacting galaxies are well-known for their high star formation rates and rich star cluster populations, but the rapidly changing tidal field can also efficiently destroy clusters. We use numerical simulations of merging disc…
We analyse the phase-space structure of simulated thick discs that are the result of a significant merger between a disc galaxy and a satellite. Our main goal is to establish what would be the characteristic imprints of a merger origin for…
The contribution of ordered rotation to the observed tilt and thickness of the Fundamental Plane of elliptical galaxies is studied by means of oblate, two-integrals cuspy galaxy models with adjustable flattening, variable amount of ordered…
The giant impact phase of terrestrial planet formation establishes connections between super-Earths' orbital properties (semimajor axis spacings, eccentricities, mutual inclinations) and interior compositions (the presence or absence of…
A growing body of observational evidence suggests that the luminosity, photometric shape and amount of rotational or anisotropical support in elliptical galaxies may provide vital clues to how they formed. Elliptical galaxies appear to fall…
We use the first systematic data sets of CO molecular line emission in z~1-3 normal star forming galaxies for a comparison of the dependence of galaxy-averaged star formation rates on molecular gas masses at low and high redshifts, and in…
Elliptical galaxies formed in a major merger tend to become more nearly spherical with time, thanks to the gravitational effect of their central black hole (or black holes). Observational results indicate that elliptical galaxies with older…
We review the concept of the Fundamental Plane (FP), and present new results on the near-infrared FP. We show that the K-band FP differs both from the optical form and the virial expectation under the assumption of constant (M/L) and…