Related papers: Secular evolution of Milky Way-type galaxies
We investigate the evolution of star-forming gas-rich disks, using a 3D chemodynamical model including a dark halo, stars, and a two-phase interstellar medium with feedback processes from the stars. We show that galaxy evolution proceeds…
Recent studies have revealed that bars can form as early as a few billion years after the Big Bang, already displaying similar characteristics of evolved bars in the Local Universe. Bars redistribute angular momentum across the galaxy,…
The main requirements for fueling an active galactic nucleus and to form massive black holes are reviewed. Low-luminosity AGN can be fueled easily from the local star clusters, near the nucleus, and the various stellar processes are…
We report idealized simulations that mimic the growth of galaxy disks embedded in responsive halos and bulges. The disks manifested an almost overwhelming tendency to form strong bars that we found very difficult to prevent. We found that…
The stellar populations of the stellar halo and of the thick disk of the Milky Way reveal much about the merging history that our Galaxy, a typical large disk galaxy, has experienced. Our current understanding, described here, implies a…
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…
Galaxies usually reside in groups and clusters where they interact gravitationally. These interactions affect the internal dynamics of the galaxies. In this thesis, we have studied the effect of flyby interactions and dark matter…
Metallicities of both gas and stars decline toward large radii in spiral galaxies, a trend known as the radial metallicity gradient. We quantify the evolution of the metallicity gradient in the Milky Way as traced by APOGEE red giants with…
We present a dynamical model for the formation and evolution of a massive disk galaxy, within a growing dark halo whose mass evolves according to cosmological simulations of structure formation. The galactic evolution is simulated with a…
We analyse the chemical properties of a set of solar vicinity stars, and show that the small dispersion in abundances of \alpha-elements at all ages provides evidence that the SFH has been uniform throughout the thick disk. In the context…
We find that nuclear rings in barred galaxies can be subject to a new type of non-self-gravitational dynamical instability. The instability leads to the formation of gaseous molecular bars with pattern speeds which are substantially slower…
The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way shows several peculiar properties: a large star formation rate, some of the most massive young star clusters and molecular clouds in the Galaxy, and a twisted ring morphology in molecular…
Galaxy flybys are as common as mergers in low redshift universe and are important for galaxy evolution as they involve the exchange of significant amounts of mass and energy. In this study we investigate the effect of minor flybys on the…
Motivated by Genzel et al.'s observations of high-redshift star-forming galaxies, containing clumpy and turbulent rings or disks, we build a set of equations describing the dynamical evolution of gaseous disks with inclusion of star…
We examine the origin of radial and vertical gradients in the age/metallicity of the stellar component of a galaxy disc formed in the APOSTLE cosmological hydrody- namical simulations. Some of these gradients resemble those in the Milky…
We study radial migration and chemical evolution in a bar-dominated disk galaxy, by analyzing the results of a fully self-consistent, high resolution N-body+SPH simulation. We find different behaviours for gas and star particles. Gas within…
The detailed dynamical structure of the bulge in the Milky Way is currently under debate. Although kinematics of the bulge stars can be well reproduced by a boxy-bulge, the possible existence of a small embedded classical bulge can not be…
We use FIRE-2 cosmological zoom-in hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the co-evolution between Milky Way-size galaxies and their host dark matter halos. We find that the formation of these galaxies follows a two-phase pattern, with an…
We investigate a model of disk galaxies whereby viscous evolution of the gaseous disk drives material inwards to form a proto-bulge. We start from the standard picture of disk formation through the settling of gas into a dark halo potential…
The role of gravitational instability-driven turbulence in determining the structure and evolution of disk galaxies, and the extent to which gravity rather than feedback can explain galaxy properties, remains an open question. To address…