Related papers: Dynamics of Disks and Warps
We report idealized simulations that mimic the growth of galaxy disks embedded in responsive halos and bulges. The disks manifested an almost overwhelming tendency to form strong bars that we found very difficult to prevent. We found that…
We use high resolution collisionless $N$-body simulations to study the secular evolution of disk galaxies and in particular the final properties of disks that suffer a bar and perhaps a bar-buckling instability. Although we find that bars…
Galactic disks lie at the heart of many of the most pressing astrophysical puzzles. There are sophisticated kinetic theories that describe some aspects of galaxy disk dynamics, but extracting quantitative predictions from those theories has…
The structure, kinematics and dynamics of the Galactic stellar halo are reviewed including evidence of substructure in the spatial distribution and kinematics of halo stars. Implications for galaxy formation theory are subsequently…
The star formation histories of Local Group galaxies are summarized. The three large spirals are discussed individually, whereas the discussion of the Local Group dwarfs concentrates on differences and commonalities. While Local Group…
We investigate the effects of halo kinematics on the dynamics of stellar discs by simulating the evolution of isolated disc-halo systems from equilibrium initial conditions. Our main results come from four simulations where the initial disc…
Most fully developed galaxies have a vivid spiral structure, but the formation and evolution of the spiral structure are still an enigma in astrophysics. In this paper, according to the standard Newtonian gravitational theory and some…
Recent ideas for the origin and persistence of the warps commonly observed in disc galaxies have focused on cosmic infall. We present N-body simulations of an idealized form of cosmic infall onto a disc galaxy and obtain a warp that closely…
Most galaxies have a warped shape when they are seen from an edge-on point of view. The reason for this curious form is not completely known so far and in this work we apply dynamical system tools to contribute to its explanation. Starting…
From this vast subject, I will pick out and review three specific topics, namely the formation and evolution of bars, the formation of bulges, and the evolution during multiple major mergers. Bars form naturally in galactic discs. Their…
In this short review we discuss the relevance of ongoing research into stellar oscillations and associated instabilities for the detection of gravitational waves and the future field of ``gravitational-wave astronomy''.
The formation of galactic discs and the efficiency of star formation within them are issues central to our understanding of galaxy formation. We have developed a detailed and versatile model of disc formation which combines the strengths of…
Can the present dynamics of spiral galaxies tell us something about the merging history, the formation and evolution of disks? Galaxy interactions thicken or destroy disks; the simultaneous presence of thick and thin disks is a tracer of…
A theory is developed for the dynamics of eccentric perturbations $[\propto \exp(\pm i\phi)]$ of a disk galaxy residing in a spherical dark matter halo and including a spherical bulge component. The disk is represented as a large number $N$…
Density waves in the central kpc of galaxies, taking the form of spirals, bars and/or lopsided density distributions, are potential actors of the redistribution of angular momentum. They may thus play an important role in the overall…
I review the various mechanisms for creating bars in rotating stellar disks, and conclude that the swing-amplified feed-back loop, which produces rapidly tumbling bars, remains the most probable. The bar continues to evolve after its…
In a cosmological setting, the disc of a galaxy is expected to continuously experience gravitational torques and perturbations from a variety of sources, which can cause the disc to wobble, flare and warp. Specifically, the study of…
We consider the key problems related to measuring the mass of stellar disks and dark halos in galaxies and to explaining the observed properties of disks formed in massive dark halos.
A substantial fraction of the warps in spiral galaxies may result from bending instabilities if the disks are essentially self-gravitating. With N-body simulations, we show that galaxies with self-gravitating disks as thick as HI disks are…
This is the third of a series of papers presenting the first attempt to analyze the growth of the bar instability in a consistent cosmological scenario. In the previous two articles we explored the role of the cosmology on stellar disks,…