Related papers: The Milky Way as a Key to Structural Evolution in …
Our Milky Way provides a unique test case for galaxy evolution models, thanks to our privileged position within the Milky Way's disc. This position also complicates comparisons between the Milky Way and external galaxies, due to our…
The innermost regions of most galaxies are characterised by the presence of extremely dense nuclear star clusters. Nevertheless, these clusters are not the only stellar component present in galactic nuclei, where larger stellar structures…
The observed star formation rate of the Milky Way can be explained by applying a metallicity-dependent factor to convert CO luminosity to molecular gas mass and a star formation efficiency per free-fall time that depends on the virial…
I review recent observational progress concerning the evolution of the morphological distribution of galaxies in the rich cluster environment and in the faint field population. By coupling HST imagery with ground-based spectroscopic…
Recent studies have revealed an oscillating asymmetry in the vertical structure of the Milky Way's disc. Here we analyze 16 high-resolution, fully cosmological simulations of the evolution of individual Milky Way-sized galaxies, carried out…
Metals -- heavy elements synthesized during various phases of stellar evolution or during supernova explosions -- play a fundamental role in shaping galaxy evolution. In fact, their relative abundances, spatial distribution, and scaling…
We study the role of radial motions of stars and gas on the evolution of abundance profiles in the Milky Way disk. We investigate, in a parametrized way, the impact of radial flows of gas and radial migration of stars induced mainly by the…
Precession is a very common phenomenon for small-scale astronomical objects. However, the precession of galactic disks, occurring on a scale larger than kilo-parsec, has barely been studied in the literature. Quantifying this precession in…
The Milky Way is often considered to be the best example of a spiral for which the dark matter not only dominates the outer kinematics, but also plays a major dynamical role in the inner galaxy: the Galactic disk is therefore said to be…
We investigate the origin of warps in stellar disks using high-resolution Milky Way analogs from the IllustrisTNG50 simulation. Focusing on galaxies that experienced a major merger, we identify a characteristic azimuthal misalignment…
The chemical and spectro-photometric evolution of spiral galaxies is investigated with detailed models, making use of up-to-date ingredients (like metallicity dependent stellar properties) and a prescription for the star formation rate…
Since chemical abundances are inherited between generations of stars, we use them to trace the evolutionary history of our Galaxy. We present a robust methodology for creating a phylogenetic tree, a biological tool used for centuries to…
Dynamical evolution plays a key role in shaping the current properties of star clusters and star cluster systems. A detailed understanding of the effects of evolutionary processes is essential to be able to disentangle the properties which…
To understand galaxies and their evolution, it is necessary to describe how the different scales interact: how the microscopic physics, such as star formation, or the large scale physics, such as galaxy interactions may modify the galaxy…
We analyse the chemical properties of a set of solar vicinity stars, and show that the small dispersion in abundances of \alpha-elements at all ages provides evidence that the SFH has been uniform throughout the thick disk. In the context…
We review galaxy formation and dynamics under the MOND hypothesis of modified gravity, and compare to similar galaxies in Newtonian dynamics with dark matter. The aim is to find peculiar predictions both to discriminate between various…
The hierarchical theory of galaxy formation rests on the idea that smaller galactic structures merge to form the galaxies that we see today. The past decade has provided remarkable observational support for this scenario, driven in part by…
Nearly a century after the true nature of galaxies as distant "island universes" was established, their origin and evolution remain great unsolved problems of modern astrophysics. One of the most promising ways to investigate galaxy…
The dense molecular gas is the ideal tracer of the spiral structure in the Milky Way, and should be used intensively to solve the puzzle of its structure. In spite of our position inside the plane, we can hope to disentangle the structures,…
We use the extensive $Gaia$ Data Release 2 set of Long Period Variables to select a sample of Oxygen-rich Miras throughout the Milky Way disk and bulge for study. Exploiting the relation between Mira pulsation period and stellar…