Related papers: Age Dating the Galactic Bar with the Nuclear Stell…
The nuclear stellar disc (NSD) is a flat dense stellar structure at the heart of the Milky Way. Recent work has shown that analogous structures are common in the nuclei of external spiral galaxies, where there is evidence of an age gradient…
We review our current understanding of nuclear stellar discs (NSDs), rotating, and flattened stellar structures found in the central regions of both early- and late-type galaxies. We examine their demographics, kinematics, stellar…
The epoch in which galactic discs settle is a major benchmark to test models of galaxy formation and evolution but is as yet largely unknown. Once discs settle and become self-gravitating enough, stellar bars are able to form; therefore,…
A key event in the history of the Milky Way is the formation of the bar. This event affects the subsequent structural and dynamical evolution of the entire Galaxy. When the bar formed, gas was likely rapidly funnelled to the centre of the…
We present a chemo-dynamical $N$-body/hydrodynamic simulation of an isolated Milky Way-like galaxy to investigate how bar formation influences star formation rates, stellar migration, and the resulting age and metallicity distributions of…
Once galaxies settle their discs and become self-gravitating, stellar bars can form, driving the subsequent evolution of their host galaxy. Determining the ages of bars can therefore shed light on the epoch of the onset of secular…
The Milky Way nuclear star cluster (NSC) is located within the nuclear stellar disc (NSD) in the Galactic centre. It is not fully understood if the formation and evolution of these two components are connected, and how they influence each…
The Nuclear Stellar Disc (NSD) is a flattened high-density stellar structure that dominates the gravitational field of the Milky Way at Galactocentric radius $30\lesssim R\lesssim 300$ pc. We construct axisymmetric self-consistent…
We present the first results of a pilot study aimed at understanding the influence of bars on the evolution of galaxy discs through the study of their stellar content. We examine here the kinematics, star formation history, mass-weighted,…
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…
The Milky Way hosts a flattened nuclear stellar disc (NSD) that dominates the gravitational potential in the inner few hundred parsecs. Whether the NSD is purely axisymmetric or contains a nuclear bar remains an open question. We test for…
Nuclear Stellar Discs (NSDs) have been observed in the vast majority of barred disc galaxies including the Milky Way. Their intense star formation is sustained by the intense gas inflows driven by their surrounding bars and frequently…
Studies of the ages, abundances, and motions of individual stars in the Milky Way provide one of the best ways to study the evolution of disk galaxies over cosmic time. The formation of the Milky Way's barred inner region in particular is a…
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 nuclear stellar disc (NSD) is a dense stellar structure at the centre of our Galaxy. Given its proximity, it constitutes a unique laboratory to understand other galactic nuclei. Nevertheless, the high crowding and extinction hamper its…
The Nuclear Stellar Disc (NSD) of the Milky Way is a dense, rotating stellar system in the central 200 pc. The NSD is thought to be primarily fuelled by bar-driven gas inflows from the inner Galactic disc. As part of the LEGARE project, we…
The role of gas in the mass assembly at the nuclei of galaxies is still subject to some uncertainty. Stellar nuclear discs bridge the gap between the large-scale galaxy and the central massive objects that reside there. Using a high…
Recent analysis of stellar populations in barred galaxies have focused on the spatial distribution of stellar population ages and metallicities. However, barred galaxies are complex objects where dynamical instabilities play a leading role…
[Abridged] We map the stellar age distribution ($\lesssim 1$ Gyr) across a 6kpc$\,\times\,$6kpc area of the Galactic disc to constrain our Galaxy's recent star-formation history. Our modelling draws on the sample of Zari et al. (2021) that…
We have done a detailed study on the structural and kinematical properties of lenticular and early- and late-type spiral galaxies with bars, aiming to explore the formation and evolution processes of stellar bars in galaxies, and their…