Related papers: Modelling the formation of today's massive ellipti…
Galaxies represent the visible fabric of the Universe and there has been considerable progress recently in both observational and theoretical studies. The underlying goal is to understand the present-day diversity of galaxy forms, masses…
In a Lambda CDM Universe, galaxies grow in mass both through star formation and through addition of already-formed stars in galaxy mergers. Because of this partial decoupling of these two modes of galaxy growth, I discuss each separately in…
We have explored the buildup of the local mass-size relation of elliptical galaxies using two visually classified samples. At low redshift we compiled a subsample of 2,656 elliptical galaxies from SDSS, whereas at higher redshift (up to…
Compact elliptical galaxies are characterized by small sizes and high stellar densities. They are thought to form through tidal stripping of massive progenitors. However, only a handful of them were known, preventing us from understanding…
It is now a well established fact that galaxies undergo significant morphological transformation during their lifetimes, manifesting as an evolution along the Hubble sequence from the late to the early Hubble types. The physical processes…
A popular formation scenario for giant elliptical galaxies proposes that they might have formed from binary mergers of disk galaxies. Difficulties with the scenario that emerged from earlier studies included providing the necessary stellar…
This paper addresses the questions of what we have learned about how and when dense star clusters form, and what studies of star clusters have revealed about galaxy formation and evolution. One important observation is that globular…
The observable characteristics and subsequent evolution of young stellar populations is dominated by their massive stars. As our understanding of those massive stars and the factors affecting their evolution improves, so our interpretation…
Recent developments relevant to the formation of globular cluster systems in galaxies are discussed, including (1) The age distribution of the oldest Milky Way clusters, (2) Subgroups and possible accretion and merger remnants in the…
We present a multiphase model for the evolution of elliptical galaxies. Diffuse gas, molecular clouds, stars and remnants are taken into account. Cloud--cloud collisions and stimulated processes are the main causes of star formation. The…
Major progress has been made over the last few years in understanding hydrodynamical processes on cosmological scales, in particular how galaxies get their baryons. There is increasing recognition that a large part of the baryons accrete…
Theoretical considerations and observational data support the idea that mergers were more frequent in the past. At redshifts z = 2 to 5, violent interactions and mergers may be implicated by observations of Lyman-break galaxies, sub-mm…
The population of compact massive galaxies observed at z > 1 are hypothesised, both observationally and in simulations, to be merger remnants of gas-rich disc galaxies. To probe such a scenario we analyse a sample of 12 gas-rich and active…
We study the correlation between the morphological mix of cluster galaxies and the assembly history of the parent cluster by taking advantage of two independently developed semi-analytic models for galaxy formation and evolution. In our…
Galaxies cover a wide range of masses and star formation histories. In this review, I summarize some of the evolutionary key features of common galaxy types. At the high-mass end, very rapid, efficient early star formation is observed,…
Globular cluster systems provide valuable fossil records of the formation history of their parent galaxies. This review specifically concentrates on using color distributions of the globular cluster systems of elliptical galaxies to…
Elliptical galaxies formed in a major merger tend to become more nearly spherical with time, thanks to the gravitational effect of their central black hole (or black holes). Observational results indicate that elliptical galaxies with older…
How elliptical galaxies form is a key question in observational cosmology. While the formation of massive ellipticals is strongly linked to mergers, the low mass (Mstar < 10^9.5 MSun) regime remains less well explored. In particular,…
Once understood as the paradigm of passively evolving objects, the discovery that massive galaxies experienced an enormous structural evolution in the last ten billion years has opened an active line of research. The most significant…
We develop a simple, fast and predictive model of the hierarchical formation of galaxies which is in quantitative agreement with observations. Comparing simulations with observations we place constraints on the density of the universe and…