Related papers: Formation Models of the Galactic Bulge
Bar driven secular evolution plays a key role in changing the morphology and kinematics of disk galaxies, leading to the formation of rapidly rotating boxy/peanut bulges. If these disk galaxies also hosted a preexisting classical bulge, how…
Boxy/peanut bulges in disc galaxies have been associated to stellar bars. We analyse their properties in a large sample of $N$-body simulations, using different methods to measure their strength, shape and possible asymmetry, and then…
Using $N$-body simulations we study the buckling instability in a galactic bar forming in a Milky Way-like galaxy. The galaxy is initially composed of an axisymmetric, exponential stellar disk embedded in a spherical dark matter halo. The…
We present a systematic observational study of the relationship between bars and boxy/peanut-shaped (B/PS) bulges. We first review and discuss proposed mechanisms for their formation, focussing on accretion and bar-buckling scenarios. Using…
Bulges can be classified into classical and pseudobulges; the former are considered to be end products of galactic mergers and the latter to form via secular evolution of galactic disks. Observationally, bulges of disk galaxies are mostly…
The class `bulges' contains objects with very different formation and evolution paths and very different properties. I review two types of `bulges', the boxy/peanut bulges (B/Ps) and the discy bulges. The former are parts of bars seen…
The vertical profiles of disc galaxies are built by the material trapped around stable periodic orbits, which form their "skeletons". According to this, the knowledge of the stability of the main families of periodic orbits in appropriate…
We review the observed morphological, photometric, and kinematic properties of boxy/peanut (B/P) shape bulges. Nearly half of the bulges in the nearby edge-on galaxies have these characteristics, which fraction is similar to the observed…
We present the metallicity results from the ARGOS spectroscopic survey of the Galactic bulge. Our aim is to understand the formation of the Galactic bulge: did it form via mergers, as expected from Lambda CDM theory, or from disk…
We use high resolution collisionless $N$-body simulations to study the secular evolution of disk galaxies and in particular the final properties of disks that suffer a bar and perhaps a bar-buckling instability. Although we find that bars…
We present a novel interpretation of the previously puzzling different behaviours of stellar populations of the Milky Way's bulge. We first show, by means of pure N-body simulations, that initially co-spatial stellar populations with…
This article summarizes the structural parameters of the Galactic bulge and disk, and discusses the interpretation of the bulge microlensing observations and the determination of the Milky Way's luminous mass from the terminal velocity…
We discuss the formation and evolution of boxy/peanut bulges (B/Ps) and present new simulations results. Orbital structure studies show that B/Ps are parts of bars seen edge-on, they have their origin in vertical instabilities of the disc…
(Abridged) By using an N-body simulation of a bulge that was formed via a bar instability mechanism, we analyse the imprints of the initial (i.e. before bar formation) location of stars on the bulge kinematics, in particular on the…
Boxy/peanut (b/p) bulges, the vertically extended inner parts of bars, are ubiquitous in barred galaxies in the local Universe, including our own Milky Way. At the same time, a majority of external galaxies and the Milky Way also possess a…
Young stellar bars in disk galaxies experience a vertical buckling instability which terminates their growth and thickens them, resulting in a characteristic peanut/boxy shape when viewed edge on. Using N-body simulations of galactic disks…
Bulges of edge-on galaxies are often boxy/peanut-shaped (B/PS), and unsharp masks reveal the presence of an X shape. Simulations show that these shapes can be produced by dynamical processes driven by a bar which vertically thickens the…
The Galactic bulge is the central spheroid of our Galaxy, containing about one quarter of the total stellar mass of the Milky Way (M_bulge=1.8x10^10 M_sun; Sofue, Honma & Omodaka 2009). Being older than the disk, it is the first massive…
Historically, galactic bulges are thought to be elliptical galaxy-like objects sitting in the middle of a generally larger disk. There are, however, more and more claims that some bulges are much more similar to disks. John Kormendy has…
We show for the first time, that a fully cosmological hydrodynamical simulation can reproduce key properties of the innermost region of the Milky Way. Our high resolution simulation matches the profile and kinematics of the Milky Way's…