Related papers: Kinematic transitions and streams in galaxy halos
Thin stellar streams, such as those resulting from the tidal disruption of globular clusters, have long been known and used as probes of the gravitational potential of our Galaxy, both its visible and dark contents. In particular, the…
Stellar haloes encode a fossil record of a galaxy's accretion history, generally in the form of structures of low surface brightness, such as stellar streams. While their low surface brightness makes it challenging to determine their age,…
The analysis of the presence of substructures in 16 well-sampled clusters of galaxies suggests a stimulating hypothesis: Clusters could be classified as unimodal or bimodal, on the basis of to the sub-clump distribution in the {\em 3-D}…
The current photometric datasets, that span decades, allow for studying long-term cycles on active stars. Complementary Ca H&K observations give information also on the cycles of normal solar-like stars, which have significantly smaller,…
The earliest evolution of star clusters involves a phase of co-existence of both newly-formed stars, and the gas from which they are forming. Observations of the gas in such regions provide a wealth of data that can inform the simulations…
Upcoming ground and space-based surveys are poised to illuminate low surface brightness tidal features, providing a new observable connection to dark matter physics. From imaging of tidal debris, the morphology of stellar streams can be…
We are investigating the co-evolution of galaxies within groups combining multi-wavelength photometric and 2D kinematical observations. Here we focus on S0s showing star formation in ring/arm-like structures. We use smooth particle…
Galactic globular clusters are ancient building blocks of our Galaxy. They represent a very interesting family of stellar systems in which some fundamental dynamical processes have been taking place for more than 10 Gyr, but on time scales…
The past decade has seen an explosion of discoveries and new insights into the diffuse gas within galaxies, galaxy clusters, and the filaments composing the Cosmic Web. A new decade will bring fresh opportunities to further this progress…
Using smoothed particle hydrodynamics in combination with the special-purpose hardware device GRAPE, we follow the fragmentation process and dynamical evolution in the interior of molecular clouds until most of the gas is converted to form…
Applying the mean surface density of companions, Sigma(r), to the dynamical evolution of star clusters is an interesting approach to quantifying structural changes in a cluster. It has the advantage that the entire density structure,…
The Milky Way stellar halo contains relics of ancient mergers that tell the story of our Galaxy's formation. Some of them are identified due to their similarity in energy, actions and chemistry, referred to as the "chemodynamical space",…
A new instrument is providing crucial data with which to probe the structure of dark halos in elliptical galaxies.
I discuss the chemical and spectrophotometric evolution of galaxies over cosmological timescales and present a first attempt to treat both aspects in a chemically consistent way. In our evolutionary synthesis approach, we account for the…
We present a possible orbit for the Southern Stream of stars in M31, which connects it to the Northern Spur. Support for this model comes from the dynamics of planetary nebulae (PNe) in the disk of M31: analysis of a new sample of 2611 PNe…
We show how observations of multiply-imaged quasars at high redshift can be used as a probe of dark matter clumps (subhalos with masses ~ 10^9 solar masses) within the virialized extent of more massive lensing halos. A large abundance of…
The kinematics of newly-formed star clusters are interesting both as a probe of the state of the gas clouds from which the stars form, and because they influence planet formation, stellar mass segregation, cluster disruption, and other…
Gaia DR2 has delivered full-sky 6-D measurements for millions of stars, and the quest to understand the dynamics of our Galaxy has entered a new phase. Our aim is to reveal and characterize the kinematic sub-structure of the different…
We present preliminary results of a multi-wavelength study focused on the evolution of spiral galaxies in the UV-optical colour-magnitude (CM) diagram. By combining HI, UV and optical observations of the Coma-Abell1367 supercluster we are…
Galactic globular clusters are not simple stellar populations. And nothing is simple in their study, basically because we try to reconstruct chains of events that occurred at redshift z > 2-3 by observing these objects at z=0, after a…