Related papers: The Stellar Population of the Thin Disk
The galaxies of the Local Group that are currently forming stars can serve as our laboratories for understanding star formation and the evolution of massive stars. In this talk I will summarize what I think we've learned about these topics…
Recent theoretical work suggests that it may be common for stars in the disks of spiral galaxies to migrate radially across significant distances in the disk. Such migrations are a result of resonant scattering with spiral arms and move the…
The Milky Way galaxy is observed to have multiple components with distinct properties, such as the bulge, disk, and halo. Unraveling the assembly history of these populations provides a powerful test to the theory of galaxy formation and…
Galaxy disks are characterised by star formation histories that vary systematically along the Hubble sequence. We study global star formation, incorporating supernova feedback, gas accretion and enriched outflows in disks modelled by a…
I present examples of how chemo-dynamical N-body simulations can help understanding the structure and evolution of the inner Galaxy. Such simulations reproduce the observed links between kinematics, morphology and chemistry in the bar/bulge…
The Milky Way stellar disk has both a thin and a thick component. The thin disk is composed mostly of younger stars ($\lesssim$8 Gyr) with a lower abundance of $\alpha$ elements, while the thick disk contains predominantly older stars…
Recent studies of Galactic evolution revealed that the dynamics of the stellar component might be one of the key factors when considering galactic habitability. We run an N-body simulation model of the Milky Way, which we evolve for 10 Gyr,…
We use a semi-analytic model of halo formation to study the dynamical history of giant field galaxies like the Milky Way. We find that in a concordance LCDM cosmology, most isolated disk galaxies have remained undisturbed for 8-10 Gyr, such…
Using our rich observations within the Milky Way to better understand galaxy evolution requires understanding what the Milky Way looks like "as a galaxy" -- that is, its "true" shape and abundance profiles (unskewed by observational…
I review the results of recent cosmological simulations of galaxy formation that highlight the importance of satellite accretion in the formation of galactic disks. Tidal debris of disrupted satellites may contribute to the disk component…
We test competing models that aim at explaining the nature of stars in the Milky Way that are well away (|z|$\gtrsim$ 1kpc) from the midplane, the so-called thick disk: the stars may have gotten there through orbital migration, through…
We discuss the age of the stellar disks in the solar neighbourhood. After reviewing the various methods for age dating we discuss current estimates of the age of both the thin and the thick disk. We present preliminary results for…
Setting the timeline of the events which shaped the Milky Way disc through its 13 billion year old history is one of the major challenges in the theory of galaxy formation. Achieving this goal is possible using late-type stars, which in…
We review some of our recent progress in modelling the formation of disk galaxies in the framework of hierarchical structure formation. Our model is not only consistent with the local observations, but also provides a good description of…
Much of our effort in understanding the long-term evolution and morphology of the Milky Way and other galaxies has focused on the equilibrium of its luminous disk. However, the interplay between all components, seen and unseen, is a major…
What the future holds for the stellar populations of the Milky Way Galaxy may (optimistically) be predicted by study of their past histories, as written in the chemical abundance distributions, angular momentum distributions, velocity…
We present a brief summary of our current results on the stellar distribution and population gradients of the resolved stars in the surroundings of ~50 nearby disk galaxies, observed with space- (Hubble & Spitzer) and ground-based…
Using a semi-analytical model of the evolution of the Milky Way, we show how secular evolution can create distinct overdensities in the phase space of various properties (e.g. age vs metallicity or abundance ratios vs age) corresponding to…
Stellar ages are an important parameter to study the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In recent years, several studies have established the existence of a relationship between chemical clocks and stellar ages. The [Y/Mg] clock is a…
We present first results from a program to measure the chemical abundances of a large (N>30) sample of thick disk stars with the principal goal of investigating the formation history of the Galactic thick disk. Our analysis confirms…