Related papers: Implications of Radial Migration for Stellar Popul…
The bulk of old stars in the Galactic disk have migrated radially by up to several kpc in their lifetimes, yet the disk has remained relatively cool, i.e., the ratio of radial heating to migration has been small. Here, we demonstrate that…
The separation of the Milky Way disk into a thin and thick component is supported by differences in the spatial, kinematic and metallicity distributions of their stars. These differences have led to the view that the thick disk formed early…
We identify migrating stars in an N-body simulation of a Milky-Way-like disk. Outward migration can occur when a star in a low eccentricity orbit lags a short-lived local spiral arm density peak. We interpret short lived local density…
Using N-body simulations of the Galactic disks, we qualitatively study how the metallicity distributions of the thick and thin disk stars are modified by radial mixing induced by the bar and spiral arms. We show that radial mixing drives a…
The evolution of the Milky Way disk, which contains most of the stars in the Galaxy, is affected by several phenomena. For example, the bar and the spiral arms of the Milky Way induce radial migration of stars and can trap or scatter stars…
While it has long been known that a large number of short-lived transient spirals can cause stellar migration, here we report that another mechanism is also effective at mixing disks of barred galaxies. The resonance overlap of the bar and…
We analyse the phase-space structure of simulated thick discs that are the result of a significant merger between a disc galaxy and a satellite. Our main goal is to establish what would be the characteristic imprints of a merger origin for…
Albeit radial migration must be a ubiquitous process in disc galaxies, its significance in the evolution of stellar discs is not always reflected through global trends. However, there are other key observables, such as the metallicity…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
Stellar orbits in the Galactic disc evolve from their birth to the current shape through both radial migration and dynamical heating. The history of their secular evolution is imprinted in the current kinematics and age-metallicity…
We present a study of the extent to which the Sellwood & Binney radial migration of stars is affected by their vertical motion about the midplane. We use both controlled simulations in which only a single spiral mode is excited, as well as…
We characterize empirically the radial diffusion of stars in the plane of a typical barred disk galaxy by calculating the local spatial diffusion coefficient and diffusion time-scale for bulge-disk-halo N-body self-consistent systems which…
The outer disks of galaxies present a unique laboratory for studying the process of disk formation. A considerable fraction of observed disks exhibit a break in their surface brightness profiles. The ubiquity of these features points to a…
The evolution of circumstellar discs is influenced by their surroundings. The relevant processes include external photoevaporation due to nearby stars, and dynamical truncations. The impact of these processes on disc populations depends on…
Using test particle simulations we examine the structure of the outer Galactic disk as it is perturbed by a satellite in a tight eccentric orbit about the Galaxy. A satellite of mass a few times 10^9 Msol can heat the outer Galactic disk,…
Disks are ubiquitous in stellar astronomy, and play a crucial role in the formation and evolution of stars. In this contribution we present an overview of the most recent results, with emphasis on high spatial and spectral resolution. We…
Central bars and spirals are known to strongly impact the evolution of their host galaxies, both in terms of dynamics and star formation. Their typically different pattern speeds cause them to regularly overlap, which induces fluctuations…
We consider a differentially rotating, 2D stellar disk perturbed by two steady state spiral density waves moving at different patterns speeds. Our investigation is based on direct numerical integration of initially circular test-particle…
A star in the Milky Way's disk can now be at a Galactocentric radius quite distant from its birth radius for two reasons: either its orbit has become eccentric through radial heating, which increases its radial action $J_R$ (`blurring'); or…
Planet-disk interaction predicts a change in the orbital elements of an embedded planet. Through linear and fully hydrodynamical studies it has been found that migration is typically directed inwards. Hence, this migration process gives…