Related papers: Analysing surveys of our Galaxy I: basic astrometr…
Our knowledge of the Galaxy is being revolutionised by a series of photometric, spectroscopic and astrometric surveys. Already an enormous body of data is available from completed surveys, and data of ever increasing quality and richness…
I discuss the importance of dynamical models for exploiting survey data, focusing on the advantages of "torus" models. I summarize a number of applications of these models to the study of the Milky Way, including the determination of the…
Sky surveys represent a fundamental data basis for astronomy. We use them to map in a systematic way the universe and its constituents, and to discover new types of objects or phenomena. We review the subject, with an emphasis on the…
Galaxy models are fundamental to exploiting surveys of our Galaxy. There is now a significant body of work on axisymmetric models. A model can be defined by giving the DF of each major class of stars and of dark matter. Then the…
Surveys of the local and distant Universe are the means to test and improve our models of galaxy formation. Substantial successes in the models are evident, while there is also considerable recent progress in identifying what remains to be…
The field of astronomy is experiencing a data explosion driven by significant advances in observational instrumentation, and classical methods often fall short of addressing the complexity of modern astronomical datasets. Probabilistic…
Recent advances from astronomical surveys have revealed spatial, chemical, and kinematical inhomogeneities in the inner region of the stellar halo of the Milky Way Galaxy. In particular, large spectroscopic surveys, combined with Gaia…
Modified gravity theories may provide an alternative to dark energy to explain cosmic acceleration. We argue that the observational program developed to test dark energy needs to be augmented to capture new tests of gravity on astrophysical…
I review the statistical techniques needed to extract information about physical parameters of galaxies from their observed spectra. This is important given the sheer size of the next generation of large galaxy redshift surveys. Going to…
The vertical kinematics of stars near the Sun can be used to measure the total mass distribution near the Galactic disk and to study out-of-equilibrium dynamics. With contemporary stellar surveys, the tracers of vertical dynamics are so…
I present an overview of the science goals and achievements of ongoing spectroscopic surveys of individual stars in the nearby Universe. I include a brief discussion of the development of the field of Galactic Archaeology - using the fossil…
The body of photometric and astrometric data on stars in the Galaxy has been growing very fast in recent years (Hipparcos/Tycho, OGLE-3, 2-Mass, DENIS, UCAC2, SDSS, RAVE, Pan Starrs, Hermes, ...) and in two years ESA will launch the Gaia…
The beginning of the 21st century marked the "modern era of galaxy surveys" in astronomy. Rapid innovation in observing technology, combined with the base built by galaxy catalogs and atlases dating back centuries, sparked an explosion of…
Studying our Galaxy, the Milky Way (MW), gives us a close-up view of the interplay between cosmology, dark matter, and galaxy formation. In the next decade our understanding of the MW's dynamics, stellar populations, and structure will…
The last decade has seen enormous progress in understanding the structure of the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies via the production of large-scale digital surveys of the sky like 2MASS and SDSS, as well as specialized, counterpart…
The GAIA mission will produce an extraordinary database from which we should be able to deduce not only the Galaxy's current structure, but also much of its history, and thus cast a powerful light on the way in which galaxies in general are…
Evidence for a bar at the center of the Milky Way triggered a renewed enthusiasm for dynamical modelling of the Galactic bar-bulge. Our goal is to compare the kinematics of a sample of tracers, planetary nebulae, widely distributed over the…
We use a series of high-resolution N-body simulations of a `Milky-Way' halo, coupled to semi-analytic techniques, to study the formation of our own Galaxy and of its stellar halo. Our model Milky Way galaxy is a relatively young system…
The only way to map the Galaxy's gravitational potential $\Phi({\bf x})$ and the distribution of matter that produces it is by modelling the dynamics of stars and gas. Observations of the kinematics of gas provide key information about…
The systematic mapping of obscured and optically invisible galaxies behind the Milky Way through complementary surveys are important in arriving at the whole-sky distribution of complete galaxy samples and therewith for our understanding of…