Related papers: QSO Absorption Lines, Gaseous Infall and Star Form…
Recent observations show that spiral galaxies are surrounded by extended gaseous halos as predicted by the hierarchical structure formation scenario. The origin and nature of extraplanar gas is often unclear since the halo is continuously…
Galactic disk formation requires knowledge about the initial conditions under which disk galaxies form, the boundary conditions that affect their secular evolution and the micro-physical processes that drive the multi-phase interstellar…
Every star-forming galaxy has a halo of metal-enriched gas extending out to at least 100 kpc, as revealed by the absorption lines this gas imprints on the spectra of background quasars. However, quasars are sparse and typically probe only…
The past century of interstellar dust has brought us from first ignoring it to finding that it is an important component of the interstellar medium and plays an important role in the evolution of galaxies, the formation of stars and…
In this contribution, we review our current knowledge of the properties of galaxies, and their extended halos, selected by MgII absorption in the spectra of background quasars. We then describe recent efforts to quantify the morphologies…
Evidence for the accretion of cold gas in galaxies has been rapidly accumulating in the past years. HI observations of galaxies and their environment have brought to light new facts and phenomena which are evidence of ongoing or recent…
Our understanding of protoplanetary disks has greatly improved over the last decade due to a wealth of data from new facilities. Unbiased dust surveys with Spitzer leave us with good constraints on the dust dispersal timescale of small…
Our adaptive optics observations of nearby AGN at spatial resolutions as small as 0.085arcsec show strong evidence for recent, but no longer active, nuclear star formation. We begin by describing observations that highlight two contrasting…
Galaxy disks are characterised by star formation histories that vary systematically along the Hubble sequence. We study global star formation, incorporating supernova feedback, gas accretion and enriched outflows in disks modelled by a…
This article reviews the prevailing paradigm for how galaxies and larger structures formed in the universe: gravitational instability. Basic observational facts are summarized to motivate the standard cosmological framework underlying most…
The growth-rate and the internal dynamics of galaxy-sized dark-matter haloes depend on their location within the cosmic web. Haloes that sit at the nodes grow in mass till the present time and are dominated by radial orbits. Conversely,…
We summarize recent advances in the determination of the cosmic history of star formation and other properties of high-z galaxies, and the relevance of this information in our understanding of the formation of structures. We emphasize the…
Observations show that star formation in galaxies is closely correlated with the abundance of molecular hydrogen. Modeling this empirical relation from first principles proves challenging, however, and many questions regarding its…
We present results of surveys for high redshift galaxies selected by their having produced detectable Mg~II and Lyman limit absorption in the spectra of background QSOs. We discuss the properties of the absorbing galaxies, the connection…
We explore various instability models for the onset of star formation in irregular galaxies. Critical gas densities are calculated for gravitational instabilities with a thin, pure-gas disk, and with a thick disk composed of gas and a…
We discuss recent advances in the study of dusty, massive galaxies at z>1 arising from the first extensive spectroscopic surveys.
We investigate the chemical evolution of the Milky Way disc exploring various schemes of recent (last several Gyr) star formation episodes, as reported in recent observational works. We use a semi-analytical model with parametrized radial…
As the likely birthplaces of planets and an essential conduit for the buildup of stellar masses, inner disks are of fundamental interest in star and planet formation. Studies of the gaseous component of inner disks are of interest because…
The gas mass fraction (fg) of spiral galaxies is strongly correlated with the central surface brightness of their disks. There exist many dim galaxies with long gas consumption time scales and fg > 0.5. This resolves the gas consumption…
We reconstruct the history of the cosmic star formation as well as the cosmic production of metals in the universe by means of detailed chemical evolution models for galaxies of different morphological types. We consider a picture of…