Related papers: Dissipation and the Fundamental Plane: Observation…
Most elliptical galaxies contain central black holes, whose masses scale proportionally to the observed central velocity dispersions of the host galaxies according to the so-called Mbh-sigma relation. Here we discuss some consequences that…
The observed dynamical mass-to-light (M/L) ratios of globular clusters (GCs) are systematically lower than those expected from `canonical' simple stellar population models, which do not account for the preferential loss of low-mass stars…
Observational constraints and theoretical arguments indicate that cooled interstellar gas in bright elliptical galaxies forms into a young stellar population throughout the region within the half-light radius. The young population has a…
The effects of late gas accretion episodes and subsequent merger-induced starbursts on the photo-chemical evolution of elliptical galaxies are studied and compared to the picture of galaxy formation occurring at high redshift with an unique…
In our hierarchical structure-formation paradigm, the observed morphological evolution of massive galaxies -- from rotationally-supported discs to dispersion-dominated spheroids -- is largely explained via galaxy merging. However, since…
Mergers between gas--rich disks and less--massive dwarf galaxies are studied using numerical simulation. As the orbit of a satellite decays through dynamical friction, the primary disk develops large-amplitude spirals in response to its…
We present a large set of merger simulations of early-type disc galaxies with mass ratios of 1:1 and 3:1 and 10% of the total disc mass in gas. In contrast to the collisionless case equal-mass mergers with gas do not result in very boxy…
Based on $16,283$ early-type galaxies (ETGs) in $0.025\le z_\mathrm{spec}<0.055$ from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, we show that the fundamental plane (FP) of ETGs is not a plane in the strict sense but is a curved surface with a twisted…
I summarize the results of 15 years of research on the surface abundances of stars in globular clusters. Globular-cluster stars afford a unique view of the physical processes that shape the surface abundances of stars on and beyond the…
The Fundamental Plane (FP) is an empirical relation between the size, surface brightness, and velocity dispersion of early-type galaxies. This relation has been studied extensively for early-type galaxies in the local universe to constrain…
We revisit our original papers on the burst mode of accretion by incorporating a detailed energy balance equation into a thin-disk model for the formation and evolution of circumstellar disks around low-mass protostars.Our model includes…
Galaxy mergers are believed to trigger strong starbursts. This is well assessed by observations in the local Universe. However the efficiency of this mechanism has poorly been tested so far for high redshift, actively star forming,…
Recent studies have shown that massive galaxies in the distant universe are surprisingly compact, with typical sizes about a factor of three smaller than equally massive galaxies in the nearby universe. It has been suggested that these…
Aims. We investigate the environmental dependence of the stellar mass fundamental plane (FP$_*$) using the early-type galaxy sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7). Methods. The FP$_*$ is calculated by replacing…
Using integral field spectroscopy from SDSS-IV MaNGA, we investigate the radial distributions of star formation rate (SFR) and gas-phase metallicity in spiral galaxies that reside in spiral-elliptical (S+E) pairs. Spirals in S+E pairs show…
The chemical enrichment and stellar abundance ratios of galaxies which form in a hierarchical clustering scheme are calculated. For this purpose I adopt the star formation histories (SFH) as they are delivered by semi-analytic models in…
We investigate detailed kinematical properties of simulated collisionless merger remnants of disk galaxies with mass ratios of 1:1 and 3:1. The simulations were performed by direct summation using the new special hardware device GRAPE-5. In…
Using semi-analytical models of galaxy formation, the origin of boxy and disky elliptical galaxies is investigated. We find that the simple scenario, motivated by N-body simulations, in which the isophotal shape is only dependent on the…
Mergers in the local universe present a unique opportunity for studying the transformations of galaxies in detail. Presented here are recent results, based on multi-wavelength, high-resolution imaging and medium resolution spectroscopy,…
We use semi-analytical modelling of galaxy formation to predict the redshift-size-evolution of elliptical galaxies. Using a simple model in which relative sizes of elliptical galaxies of a given mass correlate with the fraction of stars…