Related papers: The Arcturus Moving Group: Its Place in the Galaxy
We discuss the structure of a central stellar cluster whose dynamics is influenced by gravitation of a supermassive black hole and by the dissipative interaction of orbiting stars with an accretion disc. We also take the effect of disc…
Abundances of fluorine ($^{19}$F), as well as isotopic ratios of $^{16}$O/$^{17}$O, are derived in a sample of luminous young ($\sim$10$^{7}$--10$^{8}$ yrs) red giants in the Galactic center (with galactocentric distances ranging from…
For several decades now, open clusters have been used to study the structure and chemical evolution of the disk of our Galaxy. Due to the fact that their ages and metallicities can be determined with relatively good precision, and since…
NGC3201 is a globular cluster (GC) which shows very peculiar kinematic characteristics including an extreme radial velocity and a highly retrograde orbit, strongly suggesting an extraGalactic origin. Our aims are to study NGC3201 in the…
Massive satellite accretions onto early galactic disks can lead to the deposition of dark matter in disk-like configurations that co-rotate with the galaxy. This phenomenon has potentially dramatic consequences for dark matter detection…
The concept of kinematic assemblages evolving from dispersed stellar clusters has remained contentious since Eggen's initial formulation of moving groups in the 1960's. With high quality parallaxes from the Hipparcos space astrometry…
We analyze the oxygen abundances of a stellar sample representative of the two major Galactic populations: the thin and thick disks. The aim is to investigate the differences between members of the Galactic disks and to contribute to the…
We study dwarf galaxies in the Centaurus A group to investigate their metallicity and possible environmental effects. The Centaurus A group (at ~4 Mpc from the Milky Way) contains about 50 known dwarf companions of different morphologies…
Clues to the origins and evolution of our Galaxy can be found in the kinematics of stars around us. Remnants of accreted satellite galaxies produce over- densities in velocity-space, which can remain coherent for much longer than spatial…
Transition disc systems are young stars that appear to be on the verge of dispersing their protoplanetary discs. We explore the nature of these systems by comparing the stellar accretion rates and disc masses of transition discs and normal…
The processes leading to the birth of low-mass stars such as our Sun have been well studied, but the formation of high-mass (> 8 x Sun's mass) stars has heretofore remained poorly understood. Recent observational studies suggest that…
The HI structure and kinematics of the peculiar starburst galaxy NGC 3310 (Arp 217, UGC 5786) are discussed. New evidence bearing on the origin of the starburst is presented. The bulk of HI coincides with the bright optical disk and shows…
Observations of early-type dwarf galaxies in clusters often show that cluster dwarf members have significantly higher velocities and less symmetric distributions than cluster giant ellipticals, suggesting that these dwarfs are recently…
During the last $\sim$ 30 Myr the nuclear stellar disk in the Galactic center has been the most prolific star forming region of the Milky Way when averaged by volume. Remarkably, the combined mass of the only three clusters present today in…
Recent wide-field photometric surveys (Lee et al.; Pancino et al.) have shown the existence of a previously unknown metal-rich ([Fe/H] -0.6) stellar population in the galactic globular cluster omega Centauri. The discovery of this new…
The latest edition of the APOGEE-2/DR14 survey catalogue and the first \texttt{Payne} data release of APOGEE abundance determinations by Ting et al. are examined. We identify 31 previously unremarked metal-poor giant stars with anomalously…
Observations of high redshift galaxies have revealed a multitude of large clumpy rapidly star-forming galaxies. Their formation scenario and their link to present day spirals is still unknown. In this Letter we perform adaptive mesh…
I review recent progresses in the dynamics and the evolution of self-gravitating accretion discs. Accretion discs are a fundamental component of several astrophysical systems on very diverse scales, and can be found around supermassive…
Reconstructing how all the stellar components of the Galaxy formed and assembled over time, by studying the properties of the stars which make it, is the aim of Galactic archeology. In these last years, thanks to the launch of the ESA Gaia…
(ABRIDGED) Globular clusters trace the formation and evolution of the Milky Way and surrounding galaxies, and outline their chemical enrichment history. To accomplish these tasks it is important to have large samples of clusters with…