Related papers: The Stellar Phase Density of the Local Universe an…
Phylogenetic methods have long been used in biology, and more recently have been extended to other fields - for example, linguistics and technology - to study evolutionary histories. Galaxies also have an evolutionary history, and fall…
The cumulative comoving number-density of galaxies as a function of stellar mass or central velocity dispersion is commonly used to link galaxy populations across different epochs. By assuming that galaxies preserve their number-density in…
We present a pedagogical review on the formation and evolution of galaxies in groups, utilizing observational information from the Local Group to galaxies at z~6. The majority of galaxies in the nearby universe are found in groups, and…
Galaxies can be classified as passive ellipticals or star-forming discs. Ellipticals dominate at the high end of the mass range, and therefore there must be a mechanism responsible for the quenching of star-forming galaxies. This could…
We present a theoretical framework in which bound stellar clusters arise naturally at the high-density end of the hierarchy of the interstellar medium (ISM). Due to short free-fall times, these high-density regions achieve high local star…
I discuss the chemical and spectrophotometric evolution of galaxies over cosmological timescales and present a first attempt to treat both aspects in a chemically consistent way. In our evolutionary synthesis approach, we account for the…
From two very simple axioms: (1) that AGN activity traces spheroid formation, and (2) that the cosmic star-formation history is dominated by spheroid formation at high redshift, we derive simple expressions for the star-formation histories…
Measurements of the galaxy stellar mass function are crucial to understand the formation of galaxies in the Universe. In a hierarchical clustering paradigm it is plausible that there is a connection between the properties of galaxies and…
Galaxy formation, viewed as an inference problem from incomplete information, is inherently stochastic. Reducing the full simulation state to a coarse-grained set of variables integrates out unresolved degrees of freedom, motivating an…
The near-absence of compact massive quiescent galaxies in the local Universe implies a size evolution since $z\sim2.5$. It is often theorised that such `red nuggets' have evolved into today's elliptical (E) galaxies via an E-to-E…
A key unresolved question is the role that galaxy mergers play in driving stellar mass growth over cosmic time. Recent observational work hints at the possibility that the overall contribution of `major' mergers (mass ratios $\gtrsim$1:4)…
We study the environmental effect of galaxy evolution as a function of the underlying 3D dark matter density for the first time at $z=2-2.5$, in which the underlying matter density is reconstructed from observed galaxies through dynamical…
We present a phenomenological model for understanding the origins and evolution of galaxy morphologies from a phenomenological perspective. The model includes an observationally motivated prescription for star formation in galaxy disks, as…
We present an analysis of the growth of stellar mass with cosmic time partitioned according to galaxy morphology. Using a well-defined catalog of 2150 galaxies based, in part, on archival data in the GOODS fields, we assign morphological…
The disk instability model is a promising pathway for giant planet formation in various conditions. At the moment, population synthesis models are used to investigate the outcomes of this theory, where a key ingredient of the disk…
This chapter reviews the dynamical processes in young stellar clusters. The accretion of gas by individual stars affects the dynamics of the cluster, and the masses of the stars. Dynamical mass segregation cannot explain the degree of mass…
We show that the observed upper bound on the line-of-sight velocity dispersion of the stars in an early-type galaxy, sigma<400km/s, may have a simple dynamical origin within the LCDM cosmological model, under two main hypotheses. The first…
Observations from optical to centimeter wavelengths have demonstrated that multiple systems of two or more bodies is the norm at all stellar evolutionary stages. Multiple systems are widely agreed to result from the collapse and…
The evolution of our Universe is strongly influenced by the attractive force of gravity. A key aspect of this evolution, therefore, is the merging of galaxies. Here, we explore the role of mergers in shaping the properties of massive…
We compare the history of the galaxy mass build-up, as inferred from near-IR observations, and the Star Formation Rate of massive stars in the comoving volume traced by deep extensive far-IR surveys, both possible now with the Spitzer Space…