Related papers: Dynamics for Galactic Archaeology
The abundance gradients and the radial gas profile of the Galactic disc are analysed by means of a model for the chemical evolution of galaxies. As one of the major uncertainties in models for galaxy evolution is the star formation (SF)…
The aim of Galactic Archaeology is to recover the evolutionary history of the Milky Way from its present day kinematical and chemical state. Because stars move away from their birth sites, the current dynamical information alone is not…
Substantial numbers of morphologically regular early-type (elliptical and lenticular) galaxies contain molecular gas, and the quantities of gas are probably sufficient to explain recent estimates of the current level of star formation…
Accumulation of new data on stellar hierarchical systems and the progress in numerical simulations of their formation open the door to genetic classification of these systems, where properties of a certain group (family) of objects are…
Gas accretion, hot ($\sim 10^6\,{\rm K}$) atmospheres, and a tilt between the rotation axes of the disc and the atmosphere are all common predictions of standard galaxy evolution theory for massive star-forming galaxies at low redshift.…
The standard disc formation scenario postulates that disc forms as the gas cools and flows into the centre of the dark matter halo, conserving the specific angular momentum. Major mergers have been shown to be able to destroy or highly…
Advances in extragalactic astronomy have prompted the development of increasingly realistic models which aim to describe the formation and evolution of galaxies. We review the philosophy behind one such technique, called semi-analytic…
The formation of galactic discs and the efficiency of star formation within them are issues central to our understanding of galaxy formation. We have developed a detailed and versatile model of disc formation which combines the strengths of…
Galactic accretion interacts in complex ways with gaseous halos, including galactic winds. As a result, observational diagnostics typically probe a range of intertwined physical phenomena. Because of this complexity, cosmological…
Disk galaxies evolve over time through processes that may rearrange both the radial mass profile and the metallicity distribution within the disk. This review of such slow changes is largely, though not entirely, restricted to…
Mass accretion is the key factor for evolution of galaxies. It can occur through secular evolution, when gas in the outer parts is driven inwards by dynamical instabilities, such as spirals or bars. This secular evolution proceeds very…
The goal of this investigation is to reconstruct the cosmic star formation rate density history from local observations and in doing so to gain insight into how galaxies might have formed and evolved. A new chemical evolution model is…
Numerical simulations have become a major tool for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Over the decades the field has made significant progress. It is now possible to simulate the formation of individual galaxies and galaxy…
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…
High-Velocity Clouds (HVCs) are a major fuel reservoir for star formation in the Galactic disk. Determining their origin and kinematics is thus crucial for understanding Galactic evolution. In this paper, we employ simple test-particle…
Continued star formation over the lifetime of a galaxy suggests that low metalicity gas is steadily flowing in from the circumgalactic medium. Also, cosmological simulations of large-scale structure formation imply that gas is accreted onto…
Our current understanding of the physical processes of star formation is reviewed, with emphasis on processes occurring in molecular clouds like those observed nearby. The dense cores of these clouds are predicted to undergo gravitational…
The predictions of the multiple burst accretion model of chemical evolution are compared to the observations of the stellar masses and metallicities of star-forming galaxies. With the addition of one parameter, the model can account for the…
A standard paradigm is now available for the recent evolution (z < 10) of structure on galactic and larger scales. Most of the matter is assumed to be dark and dissipationless and to cluster hierarchically from gaussian initial conditions.…
If the favored hierarchical cosmological model is correct, then the Milky Way system should have accreted ~100-200 luminous satellite galaxies in the past \~12 Gyr. We model this process using a hybrid semi-analytic plus N-body approach…