Related papers: Disk Galaxies and Galaxy Disks
Galaxy evolution is in transition from an early universe dominated by hierarchical clustering to a future dominated by secular processes. These result from interactions involving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiral…
Based on VLT/FORS spectroscopy and HST/ACS imaging, we have constructed a sample of ~200 field spiral galaxies that cover redshifts up to z~1. Such a large data set allows to study the evolution of fundamental galaxy parameters like…
The formation and evolution of the Milky Way's disc, bar, and bulge remain fundamentally limited by the lack of a contiguous, Galaxy-wide, high-precision chemo-dynamical map. Key open questions - including the survival or destruction of the…
We report the first robust measurement of the Milky Way star formation history using the imprint left on chemical abundances of long-lived stars. The formation of the Galactic thick disc occurs during an intense star formation phase between…
I present detailed models for the formation of disk galaxies, and investigate which observables are best suited as virial mass estimators. Contrary to naive expectations, the luminosities and circular velocities of disk galaxies are…
The outer disks of galaxies present a unique laboratory for studying the process of disk formation. A considerable fraction of observed disks exhibit a break in their surface brightness profiles. The ubiquity of these features points to a…
In our grid of multiphase chemical evolution models (Moll\'a & D\'iaz, 2005), star formation in the disk occurs in two steps: first, molecular gas forms, and then stars are created by cloud-cloud collisions or interactions of massive stars…
We have carried out a sample survey in UBVR photometry and proper motions in different directions in the Galaxy, as part of an investigation of galactic structure and evolution. Three fields in the direction of galactic anticentre, centre…
The recently emerging conviction that thick disks are prevalent in disk galaxies, and their seemingly ubiquitous old ages, means that the formation of the thick disk, perhaps more than any other component, holds the key to unravelling the…
Both simulations and observations suggest that the disk assembly of galaxies is governed by the interplay between coplanar gas inflow, ex-planar gas outflow and in-situ star formation on the disk, known as the leaky accretion disk. This…
Although thick disk is a structure prevalent in local disk galaxies and also present in our home Galaxy, its formation and evolution is still unclear. Whether the thick disk is born thick and/or gradually heated to be thick after formation…
(Abridged) Several aspects of the evolution of star-forming galaxies are studied using measures of the 2-dimensional surface brightness profile of a sample of 341 faint objects selected from the CFRS and LDSS redshift surveys that have been…
We examine the evolution of the sizes and number densities of disk galaxies using the high resolution images obtained by the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space…
The formation, structure and evolution of protoplanetary discs is considered. The formation of giant planets within the environment of these models is also discussed.
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…
Atomic hydrogen (HI) is an important component of gas in and around galaxies and forms extended disk-like structures well beyond the extent of starlight. Here we investigate the properties and evolution of extended HI disks that emerge in…
We present results of extensive model calculations of disk galaxy evolution within an hierarchical inside-out formation scenario. We first compare properties of the dark halos identified in a cosmological N-body simulation with predictions…
We study the chemical and spectro-photometric evolution of galactic disks with detailed models calibrated on the Milky Way and using simple scaling relations, based on currently popular semi-analytic models of galaxy formation. We compare…
How large disk galaxies have evolved in, and out of, the blue cloud of actively star-forming galaxies as a function of environment and time is an outstanding question. Some of the largest disks become systems like M31, M33 and the Milky Way…
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…