Related papers: A Population of Compact Elliptical Galaxies Detect…
We present two newly-discovered compact elliptical (cE) galaxies, exhibiting clear evidence of tidal steams, and found during a search of SDSS DR7 for cE candidates. The structural parameters of the cEs are derived using GALFIT, giving…
(Abriged) This is a short review on the evolution of elliptical and lenticular/S0 galaxies in the dense environment of rich clusters for look-back times of more than half the age of the Universe. In addition, new data are presented for the…
We test the hypothesis that the apparent axis ratio of an elliptical galaxy is correlated with the age of its stellar population. We find that old ellipticals (with estimated stellar ages t > 7.5 Gyr) are rounder on average than younger…
Many aspects concerning the formation of spiral and disc galaxies remain unresolved, despite their discovery and detailed study over the past $150$ years. As such, we present the results of an observational search for proto-spiral galaxies…
A popular formation scenario for giant elliptical galaxies proposes that they might have formed from binary mergers of disk galaxies. Difficulties with the scenario that emerged from earlier studies included providing the necessary stellar…
What is the origin of the numerous population of diffuse elliptical galaxies (dE) in clusters? These galaxies formed their stars several billion years ago and lost their gas. Though the stellar winds resulting from star formation and the…
Globular cluster systems provide valuable fossil records of the formation history of their parent galaxies. This review specifically concentrates on using color distributions of the globular cluster systems of elliptical galaxies to…
Galactic globular clusters are old, dense star systems typically containing 10\super{4}--10\super{7} stars. As an old population of stars, globular clusters contain many collapsed and degenerate objects. As a dense population of stars,…
Elliptical galaxies outside dense clusters are observed to contain small amounts (relative to spiral galaxies) of cold interstellar gas. This review discusses the atomic gas, the molecular gas, and the dust in elliptical galaxies. Field…
Near-infrared spectra of 50 elliptical galaxies in the Pisces, A2199 and A2634 clusters, and in the general field, have been obtained. The strength of the CO (2.3 micron) absorption feature in these galaxies is used to explore the presence…
We present optical VLT spectroscopy of 16 dwarf elliptical galaxies (or dEs) comparable in mass to NGC 205, and belonging to the Fornax cluster and to nearby groups of galaxies. Using ULySS and STECKMAP, we derive radial profiles of the…
Luminous elliptical galaxies generally display a rich star cluster system, whose properties provide strong constraints on the physics of galaxy formation and evolution. Star cluster system studies, however, concentrate on galaxies located…
As part of a larger program to identify and characterize possible low-redshift analogs to massive compact red galaxies found at high redshift, we have examined the morphologies of three low-redshift compact galaxies drawn from the sample of…
40 galaxies are currently known as, or suspected to be Local Group members within a radius of 1.8 Mpc. 37 of these galaxies are dwarf galaxies with M_B > -18.5 mag. I present a compilation of the star formation histories of dwarf…
We present a detailed stellar population analysis of 27 massive elliptical galaxies within 4 very rich clusters at redshift z~0.2. We obtained accurate estimates of the mean luminosity-weighted ages and relative abundances of CN, Mg and Fe…
Recent morphological studies of QSO host galaxies by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have revealed that a sizable fraction of QSO host galaxies possess close small companion galaxies. It is however not clear why and how these companion…
The luminosity dependence of kinematical and isophotal properties of elliptical galaxies is investigated using numerical simulations of galaxy merging, combined with semi-analytical models of hierarchical structure formation. Mergers of…
Dwarf galaxies have attracted increased attention in recent years, because of their susceptibility to galaxy transformation processes within rich galaxy clusters. Direct evidence for these processes, however, has been difficult to obtain,…
Compact groups (CGs) of galaxies appear to be the densest galaxy systems containing a few luminous galaxies in close proximity to each other, which have a typical size of a few tens kilopacsec in observation. On the other hand, in the…
Large self-gravitating stellar systems share with correlated liquids in condensed matter physics a pattern of hierarchical density variations. While it takes the microscopic time resolution to discern the correlated dynamics of the critical…