Related papers: Secular evolution of Milky Way-type galaxies
Gravitationally-bound clusters that survive gas removal represent an unusual mode of star formation in the Milky Way and similar spiral galaxies. While forming, they can be distinguished observationally from unbound star formation by their…
Elongated bar-like features are ubiquitous in galaxies, occurring at the centers of approximately two-thirds of spiral disks in the nearby Universe. Due to gravitational interactions between the bar and the other components of galaxies, it…
Star-forming galaxies like the Milky Way are surrounded by a hot gaseous halo at the virial temperature - the so-called galactic corona - that plays a fundamental role in their evolution. The interaction between the disc and the corona has…
Radial migration is an important dynamical effect that has reshaped the Galactic disc, but its origin has yet to be elucidated. In this work, we present evidence that resonant dragging by the corotation of a decelerating bar could be the…
As we strive to understand how galaxies evolve it is crucial that we resolve physical processes and test emerging theories in nearby systems that we can observe in great detail. Our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, and the nearby Magellanic…
Recent data from the VVV survey have strengthened evidence for a structural change in the Galactic bulge inwards of |l|<=4 deg. Here we show with an N-body barred galaxy simulation that a boxy bulge formed through the bar and buckling…
A vertical metallicity gradient in the Milky Way bulge is well-established. Yet, its origin has not been fully understood under the Galactic secular evolution scenario. We construct single-disk and triple-disk $N$-body models with an…
Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by geometrically-thin accretion disks surrounding a central supermassive black hole. Here we explore the evolution of stars embedded in these extreme astrophysical environments (AGN stars). Because AGN…
The assembly of the Milky Way bulge is an old topic in astronomy, one now in a period of renewed and rapid development. The dominant scenario for bulge formation is that of the Milky Way as a nearly pure disk galaxy, with the inner disk…
I discuss several aspects of secular evolution linked to bars and to boxy/peanut bulges, based on a very large number of high resolution, fully self-consistent $N$-body simulations. When the bar forms, it is as thin as the disc. Its…
The flow of dark matter into the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud in a model for the gravitational field of the neighboring galaxies yields a growth history for the dark matter halo of the Milky Way that ends up with angular momentum…
A new method is developed to calculate the amplitude of the galactic warps generated by a torque due to external forces. This takes into account that the warp is produced as a reorientation of the different rings which constitute the disc…
Using high resolution N-body simulations of stellar disks embedded in cosmologically motivated dark matter halos, we study the evolution of bars and the transfer of angular momentum between halos and bars. We find that dynamical friction…
There is overwhelming evidence that the Milky Way has formed its stars at a rel- atively constant rate throughout the Hubble time. This implies that its stock of cold gas was not in place since the beginning but it has been acquired slowly…
Precession is a very common phenomenon for small-scale astronomical objects. However, the precession of galactic disks, occurring on a scale larger than kilo-parsec, has barely been studied in the literature. Quantifying this precession in…
In the solar-neighbourhood, older stars have larger random velocities than younger ones. It is argued that the increase in velocity dispersion with time is predominantly a gradual process rather than one induced by discrete events such as…
The distribution of gravitational torques and bar strengths in the local Universe is derived from a detailed study of 163 galaxies observed in the near-infrared. The results are compared with numerical models for spiral galaxy evolution. It…
We investigate the formation of stellar bars in 307 Milky Way-mass disc galaxies in the TNG50 cosmological simulation. Most bars form rapidly in dynamically cold discs shortly after the central stellar mass exceeds that of dark matter. In…
Like the majority of spiral galaxies, the Milky Way contains a central non-axisymmetric bar component. Our position in the Galactic plane renders it rather hard to see, but also allows us to make measurements of the bar that are completely…
The growth of black holes (BHs) in disk galaxies lacking classical bulges, which implies an absence of significant mergers, appears to be driven by secular processes. Short bars of sub-kiloparsec radius have been hypothesized to be an…