Related papers: Can Star-Disk Collisions Explain the Missing Red G…

The clustered nature of star formation should produce a high degree of structure in the combined phase and chemical space in the Galactic disk. To date, observed structure of this kind has been mostly limited to bound clusters and moving…

Observations of the $\gamma$-ray emission around star clusters, isolated supernova remnants, and pulsar wind nebulae indicate that the cosmic-ray (CR) diffusion coefficient near acceleration sites can be suppressed by a large factor…

We investigate the formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in a Milky-Way-like disk galaxy with a flat rotation curve. We perform a series of 3D adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) numerical simulations that follow both the…

We investigate star formation at very early evolutionary phases in five massive clouds in the inner 500 pc of the Galaxy, the Central Molecular Zone. Using interferometer observations of H$_2$O masers and ultra-compact H II regions, we find…

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a previously unknown population of compact, red galaxies at $z \sim 5$, known as "Little Red Dots" (LRDs). With effective radii of $\sim 100$ pc and stellar masses of $10^9-10^{11} \,…

A key unresolved question is the role that galaxy mergers play in driving stellar mass growth over cosmic time. Recent observational work hints at the possibility that the overall contribution of `major' mergers (mass ratios $\gtrsim$1:4)…

We present an analysis of the spatial distribution of star formation in a sample of 60 visually identified galaxy merger candidates at z>1. Our sample, drawn from the 3D-HST survey, is flux-limited and was selected to have high star…

A star cluster in a galactic nucleus sinks toward the galactic center due to dynamical friction. As it spirals inward, the cluster loses mass due to stellar evolution, relaxation driven evaporation, and tidal stripping, eventually…

My colleagues and I identified distant red galaxies (DRGs) with J-K>2.3 mag in the GOODS-S field. These galaxies reside at z~1-3.5, (<z>=2.2) and based on their ACS (0.4-1 micron), ISAAC (1-2.2 micron), and IRAC (3-8 micron) photometry,…

We compare the planet-to-star mass-ratio distribution measured by gravitational microlensing to core accretion theory predictions from population synthesis models. The core accretion theory's runaway gas accretion process predicts a dearth…

We describe a new method for robustly testing theoretical predictions of red giant evolution near the tip of the giant branch. When theoretical cumulative luminosity functions are shifted to align the tip in I-band and normalized at a…

By using images from the HST/WFPC2/ACS archive, we have analyzed the spatial distribution of the AGB and RGB stars along the galactocentric radius of nearby spiral galaxies M~81, NGC 300 and NGC 55. Using color-magnitude diagrams and…

Mergers between helium white dwarfs and main-sequence stars are likely common, producing red giant-like remnants making up roughly a few percent of all low-mass ($\lesssim2M_\odot$) red giants. Through detailed modeling, we show that these…

[Abridged] We present a medium-resolution spectroscopic survey of late-type giant stars at mid-Galactic latitudes of (30$^{\circ}<|b|<60^{\circ}$), designed to probe the properties of this population to distances of $\sim$9 kpc. Because M…

Different from Milky-Way-like galaxies, discs of gas-rich galaxies are clumpy. It is believed that the clumps form because of gravitational instability. However, a necessary condition for gravitational instability to develop is that the…

We use simulations with realistic models for stellar feedback to study galaxy mergers. These high resolution (1 pc) simulations follow formation and destruction of individual GMCs and star clusters. The final starburst is dominated by in…

About two-thirds of present-day, large galaxies are spirals such as the Milky Way or Andromeda, but the way their thin rotating disks formed remains uncertain. Observations have revealed that half of their progenitors, six billion years…

Direct imaging observations constrain the fraction of stars orbited by gas giant planets with separations greater than 10 au to about 0.01 only. This is widely believed to indicate that massive protoplanetary discs rarely fragment on…

We investigate the coupling between rock-size solids and gas during the formation of gas giant planets by disk fragmentation in the outer regions of massive disks. In this study, we use three-dimensional radiative hydrodynamics simulations…

Context: For stars with initial masses below about 1 solar mass, the mass loss during the first red giant branch (RGB) phase dominates mass loss in the later asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase. Nevertheless, mass loss on the RGB is still…