Related papers: Disc Heating: Comparing the Milky Way with Cosmolo…
The velocity dispersion of nearby stars in the Galactic disc is well known to increase substantially with age; this is the so-called Age-Velocity relation, and is interpreted as a ``heating'' of the disc as a function of time. We have…
Vertically extended, high velocity dispersion stellar distributions appear to be a ubiquitous feature of disc galaxies, and both internal and external mechanisms have been proposed to be the major driver of their formation. However, it is…
We test the validity of comparing simulated field disk galaxies with the empirical properties of systems situated within environments more comparable to loose groups, including the Milky Way's Local Group. Cosmological simulations of Milky…
We analyse from an observational perspective the formation history and kinematics of a Milky Way-like galaxy from a high-resolution zoom-in cosmological simulation that we compare to those of our Galaxy as seen by Gaia DR2 to better…
Kinematic studies of disk galaxies, using individual stars in the Milky Way or statistical studies of global disk kinematics over time, provide insight into how disks form and evolve. We use a high-resolution, cosmological zoom-simulation…
[Abridged] In this first paper of this series, we present a new approach for studying the chemo-dynamical evolution in disk galaxies, which consists of fusing disk chemical evolution models with compatible numerical simulations of galactic…
We present a new approach to study galaxy evolution in a cosmological context. We combine cosmological merger trees and semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to provide the initial conditions for multi-merger hydrodynamic simulations. In…
Deep photometric surveys of the Milky Way have revealed diffuse structures encircling our Galaxy far beyond the "classical" limits of the stellar disk. This paper reviews results from our own and other observational programs, which together…
One of the most debated consequences of the Milky Way's last major merger is the so-called $Splash$: stars with disc-like chemistry but halo-like kinematics, often interpreted as evidence for the violent heating of an early protodisc. Using…
We study the stellar discs and spheroids in eight simulations of galaxy formation within Milky Way-mass haloes in a Lambda Cold Dark Matter cosmology. A first paper in this series concentrated on disc properties. Here, we extend this…
The long-standing challenge of creating a Milky Way-like disk galaxy from cosmological simulations has motivated significant developments in both numerical methods and physical models in recent years. We investigate these two fundamental…
We study the kinematics of stars both at their formation and today within 14 Milky Way (MW)-mass galaxies from the FIRE-2 cosmological zoom-in simulations. We quantify the relative importance of cosmological disk settling and post-formation…
We analyze the structural and dynamical properties of disk-like objects formed in fully consistent cosmological simulations which include inefficient star formation. Comparison with data of similar observable properties of spiral galaxies…
We investigate the growth of stellar discs in Milky Way-mass galaxies using the magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the Auriga Project in a full cosmological context. We focus on the gas accretion process along the discs, calculating the…
Despite the recent advancements in the field of galaxy formation and evolution, fully self-consistent simulations are still unable to make the detailed predictions necessary for the planned and ongoing large spectroscopic and photometry…
A simple model for the evolution of disc galaxies is presented. We adopt three numbers from observations of the Milky Way disc, the local surface mass density, the stellar scale length (of the assumedly exponential disc) and the amplitude…
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…
The study of the Milky Way stellar discs in the context of galaxy formation is discussed. In particular we explore the properties of the Milky Way disc using a new sample of about 550 dwarf stars for which we have recently obtained…
Recent observations have shown that star-forming galaxies like our own Milky Way evolve kinematically into ordered thin disks over the last ~8 billion years since z=1.2, undergoing a process of "disk settling." For the first time, we study…
Simulating thin and extended galactic disks has long been a challenge in computational astrophysics. We introduce the NIHAO-UHD suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way mass galaxies and study stellar disk properties…