Related papers: Secular Evolution of the Galactic Disk
Observations of rich LMC and SMC clusters reveal an increasing spread in core radius with age. This trend likely represents real physical evolution in these systems. Old Magellanic Cloud clusters appear either extended or compact. Similar…
We have used the velocity dispersion as an age indicator to constrain the ages of a large sample of main sequence Vega-like stars in order to study the lifetimes and temporal evolution of the dust disks around them. We use HIPPARCOS…
We assume that the individual stars which are located at the peripheral parts of the spiral galaxies are experiencing a drag force acting upon them radially. Such a force might be produced by some sort of a dynamically generated viscous…
We give a review of cosmic ray propagation models. It is shown that the development of the theory of cosmic ray origin leads inevitably to the conclusion that cosmic ray propagation in the Galaxy is determined by effective particle…
We review internal secular evolution in galaxy disks -- the fundamental process by which isolated disks evolve. We concentrate on the buildup of dense central features that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly…
We show that in N-body simulations of isolated spiral discs, spiral arms appear to transient, recurring features that co-rotate with the stellar disc stars at all radii. As a consequence, stars around the spiral arm continually feel a…
The secular evolution process, which slowly transforms the morphology of a galaxy over its lifetime, could naturally account for observed properties of the great majority of physical galaxies if both stellar and gaseous accretion processes…
The origin and types of spiral arms are reviewed with an emphasis on the connections between these arms and star formation. Flocculent spiral arms are most likely the result of transient instabilities in the gas that promote dense cloud…
We study transient spiral structures in an isothermal, thin, galactic disc. We find no instability that can grow everywhere from infinitesimal disturbances, but spiral structure does grow in the disc due to an arbitrarily strong,…
Gas disks of spiral galaxies can be described as clumpy accretion disks without a coupling of viscosity to the actual thermal state of the gas. The model description of a turbulent disk consisting of emerging and spreading clumps (Vollmer &…
Circumstellar disks are an integral part of the star formation process and the sites where planets are formed. Understanding the physical processes that drive their evolution, as disks evolve from optically thick to optically thin, is…
Our Galaxy is a complex machine in which several processes operate simultaneously: metal-poor gas is accreted, is chemically enriched by dying stars, and then drifts inwards, surrendering its angular momentum to stars; new stars are formed…
We seek to understand the origin of radial migration in spiral galaxies by analyzing in detail the structure and evolution of an idealized, isolated galactic disk. To understand the redistribution of stars, we characterize the…
We analyze the motion of stars in the direction perpendicular to the galactic plane following a spiral arm passage. We show that the fast change in the vertical galactic potential causes a thermalized distribution to develop a distinctive…
We examine the distribution of young stars associated with the spiral arms of a simulated L* cosmological disk galaxy. We find age patterns orthogonal to the arms which are not inconsistent with the predictions of classical density wave…
Using the hydrodynamical (fluid) approximation, we present a self-consistent theoretical framework that couples the origin, evolution and decay of spiral structures to the secular dynamical evolution of their host galactic disks. Our…
The growth of galaxies through adiabatic accretion of dark matter is one of the main drivers of galaxy evolution. By isolating it from other processes like mergers, we analyse how it affects the evolution of star clusters. Our study…
We investigate the evolution of galactic disks in N-body Tree-SPH simulations. We find that disks, initially truncated at three scale-lengths, can triple their radial extent, solely driven by secular evolution. Both Type I (single…
Observations reveal that mature spiral galaxies consist of stars, gases and plasma approximately distributed in a thin disk of circular shape, usually with a central bulge. The rotation velocities quickly increase from the galactic center…
The Milky Way disc presents a warp, a flare, lopsidedness and other deviations from a purely axisymmetrical double exponential density component, both for the stellar and the gas component. Moreover, recent large-scale extended kinematics…