Related papers: The inner Galactic bulge: evidence for a nuclear b…
Numerical simulations of double-barred galaxies predict the build-up of different structural components (e.g., bulges, inner discs) in the central regions of disc galaxies. In those simulations, inner bars have a prominent role in the…
Bars are common galactic structures in the local universe that play an important role in the secular evolution of galaxies, including the Milky Way. In particular, the velocity distribution of individual stars in our galaxy is useful to…
Recent large scale surveys of galactic bulge stars allowed to build a detailed map of the bulge kinematics. The bulge exhibits cylindrical rotation consistent with a disky origin which evolved through bar driven secular evolution. However…
A three-dimensional hydrodynamical N-body model for the formation of the Galaxy is presented with special attention to the formation of the bulge component. Starting with cosmologically motivated initial conditions, we obtain a…
We analyse the kinematics of the Galactic bar-bulge using proper motions from the ESO public survey Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) and the second Gaia data release. Gaia has provided some of the first absolute proper motions within…
We find that nuclear rings in barred galaxies can be subject to a new type of non-self-gravitational dynamical instability. The instability leads to the formation of gaseous molecular bars with pattern speeds which are substantially slower…
We present evidence of bar-induced secular evolution in galactic discs using 3.6 ${\mu m}$ images of nearby galaxies from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G). We find that among massive galaxies ($M_{star}/M_{sun}>…
I discuss results from the COSMOS survey, showing that the fraction of disc galaxies that is barred decreases considerably with look-back time from z ~ 0.2 to z ~ 0.8. This decrease is more important for small mass and low luminosity…
We run self-consistent simulations of Milky Way-sized, isolated disk galaxies to study formation and evolution of a stellar bar as well as a nuclear ring in the presence of gas. We consider two sets of models with cold or warm disks that…
Double-barred galaxies are common in the local Universe, with approximately one third of barred spirals hosting an smaller, inner bar. Nested bars have been proposed as a mechanism for transporting gas to the very central regions of the…
A new idea is proposed for the origin of bulges in spiral galaxies. Numerical simulations for the protogalactic collapse suggest strongly that galactic bulges have been assembled from massive clumps formed in the galactic disks in their…
The Milky Way is a barred galaxy whose central bulge has a box/peanut shape and consists of multiple stellar populations with different orbit distributions. This review describes dynamical and chemo-dynamical equilibrium models for the…
Red clump stars are commonly used to map the reddening and morphology of the inner regions of the Milky Way. We use the new photometric catalogues of the VISTA Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea survey to achieve twice the spatial resolution…
The Galactic bulge, that is the prominent out-of-plane over-density present in the inner few kiloparsecs of the Galaxy, is a complex structure, as the morphology, kinematics, chemistry and ages of its stars indicate. To understand the…
By using $N$-body and hydro simulations, we study the formation and evolution of bars in galaxies with significant gas content focusing on the phenomenon of the buckling instability. The galaxies are initially composed of a spherical dark…
We investigate the inner regions of the Milky Way with a sample of unprecedented size and coverage thanks to APOGEE DR16 and Gaia EDR3 data. Our inner Galactic sample has more than 26,000 stars within $|X_{\rm Gal}| <5$ kpc, $|Y_{\rm Gal}|…
The circular speed curve of the Milky Way provides a key constraint on its mass distribution, reflecting the axisymmetric component of the gravitational potential. This is especially critical in the inner Galaxy ($R \lesssim 4$ kpc), where…
We present the first results from the SMUGGLE-Ring project, a suite of simulations employing the SMUGGLE ISM and stellar feedback model to explore nuclear structures in Milky Way-mass galaxies. We discuss results from three simulations…
Evolution of stellar bars in disk galaxies is accompanied by dynamical instabilities and secular changes. Following the vertical buckling instability, the bars are known to weaken dramatically and develop a pronounced boxy/peanut shape when…
Like the majority of spiral galaxies, the Milky Way contains a central non-axisymmetric bar component. Our position in the Galactic plane renders it rather hard to see, but also allows us to make measurements of the bar that are completely…