Related papers: Starburst triggered by compressive tides in galaxy…
I present recent observations and analyses of star cluster formation in a wide variety of environments -- from young star clusters and super star clusters in normal actively star-forming spirals and irregulars to starbursting dwarfs and…
Galactic collisions trigger a number of phenomena, such as transportation inward of gas from distances of up to kiloparsecs from the center of a galaxy to the nuclear region, fuelling a central starburst or nuclear activity. The inverse…
We present a hydrodynamical simulation of an Antennae-like galaxy merger at parsec resolution, including a multi-component model for stellar feedback and reaching numerical convergence in the global star formation rate for the first time.…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
The empirical laws of star formation suggest that galactic-scale gravity is involved, but they do not identify the actual triggering mechanisms for clusters in the final stages. Many other triggering processes satisfy the empirical laws…
A precise electromagnetic measurement of the sky coordinates and redshift of a coalescing black hole binary holds the key for using its gravitational wave (GW) signal to constrain cosmological parameters and to test general relativity. Here…
We present hydrodynamic simulations of a major merger of disk galaxies, and study the ISM dynamics and star formation properties. High spatial and mass resolutions of 12pc and 4x10^4 M_sol allow to resolve cold and turbulent gas clouds…
Shell galaxies make a class of tidally distorted galaxies, characterised by wide concentric arc(s), extending out to large galactocentric distances with sharp outer edges. Recent observations of young massive star clusters in the prominent…
Accretion of stars on massive black holes (MBHs) can feed MBHs and generate tidal disruption events (TDEs). We introduce a new physically motivated model to self-consistently treat TDEs in cosmological simulations, and apply it to the…
In addition to a supermassive black hole (SMBH), the central parsec of the Milky Way hosts over a hundred of massive, high velocity young stars whose existence, and organisation of a subset of them in one, or possibly two, mis-aligned…
Galaxy mergers produce supermassive black hole binaries, which emit gravitational waves prior to their coalescence. We perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to study the tidal disruption of stars by such a binary in the final…
We propose that synchronized triggering of star formation in gas-rich galaxies is possible during major mergers of cluster of galaxies, based on new numerical simulations of the time evolution of the physical properties of the intracluster…
Gravity drives the collapse of molecular clouds through which stars form, yet the exact role of gravity in cloud collapse remains a complex issue. Studies point to a picture where star formation occurs in clusters. In a typical, pc-sized…
For a density that is not too sharply peaked towards the center, the local tidal field becomes compressive in all three directions. Available gas can then collapse and form a cluster of stars in the center, including or even being dominated…
High-redshift clusters of galaxies show an over-abundance of spirals by a factor of 2-3, and the corresponding under-abundance of S0 galaxies, relative to the nearby clusters. This morphological evolution can be explained by tidal…
Recent images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of the interacting disk galaxies NGC 4038/4039 (the Antennae) reveal clusters of many dozens and possibly hundreds of young compact massive star clusters within projected regions…
Galaxy-galaxy interactions rearrange the baryons in galaxies and trigger substantial star formation; the aggregate effects of these interactions on the evolutionary histories of galaxies in the Universe are poorly understood. We combine B…
We present a sample of dwarf galaxies that suffer ongoing disruption by the tidal force of nearby massive galaxies. Analysing structural and stellar population properties using the archival imaging and spectroscopic data from the Sloan…
The evolution of our Universe is strongly influenced by the attractive force of gravity. A key aspect of this evolution, therefore, is the merging of galaxies. Here, we explore the role of mergers in shaping the properties of massive…
This lecture reviews the fundamental physical processes involved in star formation in galaxy interactions and mergers. Interactions and mergers often drive intense starbursts, but the link between interstellar gas physics, large scale…