Related papers: Galactic disks and their evolution
Projected in the sky, galaxies are spatially-resolved objects. To understand how they formed and evolve it is necessary to study the spatial distribution of their observables. In this review talk, we briefly describe some scaling relations…
We review knowledge of galaxy structures obtained by their emitted light and in the local universe where they can be studied in great detail. We discuss the shapes of, and stellar motions within, galaxies, compositional clues derived from…
Massive black holes are key inhabitants of the nuclei of galaxies. Moreover, their astrophysical relevance has gained significant traction in recent years, thanks especially to the amazing results that are being (or will be) delivered by…
Spirals in galaxies have long been thought to be caused by gravitational instability in the stellar component of the disk, but discerning the precise mechanism had proved elusive. Tidal interactions, and perhaps bars, may provoke some…
The rotation curves of disk galaxies exhibit a number of striking regularities. The amplitude of the rotation is correlated with luminosity (Tully-Fisher), the shape of the rotation curve is well predicted by the luminous mass distribution,…
We use a state-of-the-art semi-analytic model to study the size and the specific angular momentum of galaxies. Our model includes a specific treatment for the angular momentum exchange between different galactic components. Disk scale radii…
We present a scenario for the formation and evolution of disk galaxies within the framework of an inflationary CDM universe, and we compare the results with observations ranking from the present-day up to z~1. Galactic disks are built-up…
The radial distribution of mass in a disk galaxy is strongly constrained by its rotation curve. The separate contributions from the individual stellar populations and dark matter (DM) are not easily disentangled, however, especially since…
Collapsed objects have definitely been observed: some are stellar-mass objects, the endpoint of massive stars; others, millions of times more massive, have been discovered in the cores of most galaxies. Their formation poses some…
Properties of galaxies like their absolute magnitude and their stellar mass content are correlated. These correlations are tighter for close pairs of galaxies, which is called galactic conformity. In hierarchical structure formation…
In the $\Lambda$-CDM paradigm, the dark halo governs the gravitational potential within which a galaxy can form and evolve. In this Letter we show that the present-day inner ($r<50\text{ kpc}$) dark halo can be significantly misaligned with…
Dynamical mass discrepancies in galaxies have two possible explanations: the existence of large amounts of dark matter or the breakdown of Newtonian gravity. True dark matter halos of galaxies could differ in several respects from apparent…
Recent work on the dynamical evolution of galactic nuclei containing supermassive black holes is reviewed. Topics include galaxy structural properties; collisionless and collisional equilibria; loss-cone dynamics; and dynamics of binary and…
We present first results concerning the metallicities and stellar populations of galaxies formed in a cosmologically motivated simulation. The calculations include dark matter, gas dynamics, radiation processes, star formation, supernovae…
A galactic disk in a spiral galaxy is generally believed to be embedded in an extended dark matter halo, which dominates its dynamics in the outer parts. However, the shape of the halo is not clearly understood. Here we show that the dark…
The bulge is a region of the Galaxy of tremendous interest for understanding galaxy formation. However measuring photometry and kinematics in it raises several inherent issues, such as severe crowding and high extinction in the visible.…
The HI in disk galaxies frequently extends beyond the optical image, and can trace the dark matter there. I briefly highlight the history of high spatial resolution HI imaging, the contribution it made to the dark matter problem, and the…
In a hierarchical merging scenario, the outer parts of a galaxy are a fossil record of the galaxy's early history. Observations of the outer disks and halos of galaxies thus provide a tool to study individual galaxy histories and test…
We explore the growth and the evolution of the bar instability in stellar-gaseous disks embedded in a suitable dark matter halo evolving in a fully consistent cosmological framework. The aim of this paper is to point out the impact of…
We study gravitational instabilities in disks, with special attention to the most massive clumps that form because they are expected to be the progenitors of globular-type clusters. The maximum unstable mass is set by rotation and depends…