Related papers: Nuclear Stellar Discs
Clues to the formation and evolution of Nuclear Star Clusters (NSCs) lie in their stellar populations. However, these structures are often very faint compared to their host galaxy, and spectroscopic analysis of NSCs is hampered by…
Studies of stellar populations, understood to mean collections of stars with common spatial, kinematic, chemical, and/or age distributions, have been reinvigorated during the last decade by the advent of large-area sky surveys such as SDSS,…
HST observations have revealed that compact sources exist at the centers of many, maybe even most, galaxies across the Hubble sequence. These sources are called "nuclei" or also "nuclear star clusters" (NCs), given that their structural…
Aims. Neutron stars (NSs) produced in the Milky Way are supposedly ten to the eighth - ten to the ninth, of which only $\sim 2 \times 10^{3}$ are observed. Constraining the phase space distribution of NSs may help to characterize the yet…
Structure of a quasi-stationary stellar cluster is modelled assuming that it is embedded in the gravitational field of a super-massive black hole. Gradual orbital decay of stellar trajectories is caused by the dissipative interaction with…
In a virialized stellar system, the mean-square velocity is a direct tracer of the energy per unit mass of the system. Here, we exploit this to estimate and compare root-mean-square velocities for a large sample of nuclear star clusters and…
The clustered nature of star formation should produce a high degree of structure in the combined phase and chemical space in the Galactic disk. To date, observed structure of this kind has been mostly limited to bound clusters and moving…
In the standard $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmology, the existence of massive pure-disc galaxies remains challenging within the hierarchical framework and is key to understanding the evolutionary history of Milky Way-like…
We present optical broad- and narrow-band imaging of a sample of a dozen barred galaxies. These images are analyzed in conjunction with our previously published near-infrared imaging of their central regions and with literature values for,…
Recent observations have revealed a variety of young star clusters, including embedded systems, young massive clusters, and associations. We study the formation and dynamical evolution of these clusters using a combination of simulations…
We present results from an imaging survey of an unbiased sample of thirty-eight early-type (S0--Sa), low-inclination, optically barred galaxies in the field. Our goal was to find and characterize central stellar and gaseous structures:…
We investigate the structural properties of nuclear star clusters in late-type spiral galaxies. More specifically, we fit analytical models to HST images of 39 nuclear clusters in order to determine their effective radii after correction…
A literature compilation of nuclear star cluster (NSC) masses is used to study the correlation between global and nuclear properties. A comparison of observational data to the predictions of semi-analytical galaxy formation models places…
We introduce a collection of primarily centrally star-forming galaxies that are selected by disk color to have truncated disk star formation. We show that common explanations for centrally-concentrated star formation -- low stellar mass,…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
We report the first star formation history study of the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (NSC) that includes observational constraints from a large sample of stellar metallicity measurements. These metallicity measurements were obtained…
Deep photometric surveys of the Milky Way have revealed diffuse structures encircling our Galaxy far beyond the "classical" limits of the stellar disk. This paper reviews results from our own and other observational programs, which together…
We present the results of a large-scale proper motion study of the central ~36'x16' of the Milky Way, based on our high angular resolution GALACTICNUCLEUS survey (epoch 2015) combined with the HST Paschen-alpha survey (epoch 2008). Our…
We examine the chemical and dynamical structure in the solar neighbourhood of a model Galaxy that is the endpoint of a simulation of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way in the presence of radial mixing of stars and gas. Although the…
In the central few degrees of the bulge of the Milky Way there is a flattened structure of gas, dust and stars (the central molecular zone) similar to nuclear disks in other galaxies. Due to extreme foreground extinction we possess only…