Related papers: Fossil stellar streams and their globular cluster …
If the Galaxy formed hierarchically through the accretion of smaller satellite galaxies we might hope to find signatures of this in the halo's phase-space distribution. I review theoretical ideas about what form these signatures should…
We study the chemical properties of the stellar populations in eight simulations of the formation of Milky-Way mass galaxies in a LCDM Universe. Our simulations include metal-dependent cooling and an explicitly multiphase treatment of the…
According to the current galaxy formation paradigm, mergers and interactions play an important role in shaping present-day galaxies. The remnants of this merger activity can be used to constrain galaxy formation models. In this work we use…
A new view on our Galaxy has recently emerged, with large consequences on its formation scenarios. Not only new dwarf satellites have been detected, still orbiting and tidally disrupting, but also a multitude of stellar streams or tidal…
Observational surveys have found that the dynamical masses of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) correlate with the richness of their globular cluster (GC) system. This could be explained if GC-rich galaxies formed in more massive dark matter…
Over the next decade, the astronomical community will be commissioning multiple wide-field observatories well-suited for studying stellar halos in both integrated light and resolved stars. In preparation for this, we use five…
The halo and disc globular cluster population can be used as a tracer of the primordial epochs of the Milky Way formation. In this work, literature data of globular clusters ages, chemical abundances, and structural parameters are studied,…
Globular clusters (GCs) are powerful tracers of galaxy assembly, frequently used to identify accreted substructure and reconstruct hierarchical merger histories. With advances in GC formation models and cosmological simulations, we can now…
We extend our previous physically-based halo occupation distribution models to include the dependence of clustering on the spectral energy distributions of galaxies. The high resolution Millennium Simulation is used to specify the positions…
In numerous studies of the outer Galactic halo some evidence for accretion has been found. If the outer halo did form in part or wholly through merger events, we might expect to find coherent streams of stars and globular clusters following…
We use the Aquarius simulation series to study the imprint of assembly history on the structure of Galaxy-mass cold dark matter halos. Our results confirm earlier work regarding the influence of mergers on the mass density profile and the…
ABRIDGED) We revise the formation of Galactic GCs by adding the detailed chemical composition of their different stellar generations (from 1200 giants in 19 GCs) to their global parameters. We propose to identify as GCs those showing the…
We develop a framework for modelling the Milky Way using stellar streams and a wide range of photometric and kinematic observations. Through the use of mock data we demonstrate that a standard suite of Galactic observations leads to…
The steepness of the central density profiles of dark matter (DM) in low-mass galaxy halos (e.g. dwarf galaxies) is a powerful probe of the nature of DM. We propose a novel scheme to probe the inner profiles of galaxy subhalos using stellar…
Several models have been advanced to explain the multiple stellar populations observed in globular clusters (GCs). Most models necessitate a large initial population of unenriched stars that provide the pollution for an enriched population,…
The fraction of stellar mass contained in globular clusters (GCs), also measured by number as the specific frequency, is a fundamental quantity that reflects both a galaxy's early star formation and its entire merging history. We present…
Oxygen and carbon are important elements in stellar populations. Their behavior refers to the formation history of the stellar populations. C and O abundances would also obviously influence stellar opacities and the overall metal abundance…
The connection between a galaxy's total globular cluster system (GCS) mass and its halo mass has been studied for decades and it has been found that galaxies at nearly all observed masses adhere to a linear scaling relation between these…
We use a series of high-resolution simulations of a `Milky-Way' halo coupled to semi-analytic methods to study the formation of our own Galaxy and of its stellar halo. The physical properties of our model Milky Way, as well as the age and…
While mergers between massive galaxies and their dwarf satellites are well studied, the properties of dwarf - dwarf satellite mergers are not well constrained. Stellar streams trace satellite disruption and, in the dwarf galaxy regime, are…