Related papers: Making Bright Giants Invisible At The Galactic Cen…
Near the minor axis of the Galactic bulge, at latitudes b < -5 degrees, the red giant clump stars are split into two components along the line of sight. We investigate this split using the three fields from the ARGOS survey that lie on the…
The environment near the massive black hole (MBH) in the Galactic center is very hostile for star formation. Nevertheless, many young stars (both O and B stars) are observed close the MBH. The B-stars seems to have an isotropic, continuous…
A large deep and nearly complete B<24.5 redshift sample is used to measure the change in distribution function of the stellar mass production rate in individual galaxies with redshift. The evolution of the star formation rate distribution…
Abundances of fluorine ($^{19}$F), as well as isotopic ratios of $^{16}$O/$^{17}$O, are derived in a sample of luminous young ($\sim$10$^{7}$--10$^{8}$ yrs) red giants in the Galactic center (with galactocentric distances ranging from…
We chart the expected Galactic distribution of neutron stars and black holes. These compact remnants of dead stars -- the Galactic underworld -- are found to exhibit a fundamentally different distribution and structure to the visible…
Recent observations have revealed a population of $\alpha$-element abundances enhanced giant stars with unexpected high masses ($\gtrsim$1 $M_\odot$) from asteroseismic analysis and spectroscopy. Assuming single-star evolution, their masses…
The fate of massive stars with initial masses >8M$_\odot$ depends largely on the mass-loss rate (\mdot ) in the end stages of their lives. Red supergiants (RSGs) are the direct progenitors to Type II-P core collapse supernovae (SN), but…
The Fermi Large Area Telescope has provided the most detailed view toward the Galactic Centre (GC) in high-energy gamma rays. Besides the interstellar emission and point-source contributions, the data suggest a residual diffuse gamma-ray…
This brief review describes some of the observed properties of the populations of massive asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) found in nearby galaxies, with a focus on their luminosity functions, mass-loss rates…
We study the properties of giant clumps and their radial gradients in high-$z$ disc galaxies using AMR cosmological simulations. Our sample consists of 770 snapshots in the redshift range $z=4-1$ from 29 galaxies that at $z=2$ span the…
Massive stars and their winds have a large influence in their environment, e.g, determining the accretion rate on to the Galactic Centre (GC) super-massive black hole Sgr A*. The winds of those stars collide and are accreted, at a rate that…
We discuss the structure of a central stellar cluster whose dynamics is influenced by gravitation of a supermassive black hole and by the dissipative interaction of orbiting stars with an accretion disc. We also take the effect of disc…
Observations of GRB host galaxies and their environments in general can provide valuable clues about the nature of progenitors. Bursts are associated with faint, <R> ~ 25 mag, galaxies at cosmological redshifts, <z> ~ 1. The host galaxies…
Using a sample of over 70, 000 red clump (RC) stars with $5$-$10$% distance accuracy selected from the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anti-center (LSS-GAC), we study the radial and vertical gradients of the Galactic disk(s)…
Based on high-resolution spectra obtained with the MIKE spectrograph on the Magellan telescopes we present detailed elemental abundances for 20 red giant stars in the outer Galactic disk, located at Galactocentric distances between 9 and 13…
We study the Galactic distribution of ~10,000 Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars selected by IRAS colors and variability index. The distance to each star is estimated by assuming a narrow luminosity function and a model-derived bolometric…
The relaxation time at the half-mass radius of Galactic globular clusters (GGCs) is typically within a few Gyr. Hence, the majority of GGCs are expected to be well relaxed systems, given their age is around 12-13 Gyr. So any initial radial…
We present observations and analysis of the host galaxies of 23 heavily dust-obscured gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the Swift satellite during the years 2005-2009, representing all GRBs with an unambiguous host-frame extinction of…
The mass loss rates of red supergiants (RSGs) govern their evolution towards supernova and dictate the appearance of the resulting explosion. To study how mass-loss rates change with evolution we measure the mass-loss rates (\mdot) and…
The current generation of millimeter interferometers have revealed a population of compact (r <~ 0.1 pc), massive (M ~ 100 Msun) gas cores that are the likely progenitors of massive stars. I review models for the evolution of these objects…