Related papers: Disk galaxy evolution: from the Milky Way to high-…
We present a phenomenological approach to the study of disk galaxy evolution, based on i) a detailed modelling of the Milky Way (used as a prototype disk galaxy) and ii) an extension of the model to other disks through some simple scaling…
Despite having entered the era of "precision cosmology," the formation of galaxies within the favored CDM cosmological paradigm remains problematic. By relating our N-body/smooth particle hydro-dynamical simulation to an extensive range of…
Spiral galaxies offer a unique opportunity to study the role of star formation in galaxy evolution and to test various theoretical star formation schemes. I review some recent relevant work on the evolution of spiral galaxies. Detailed…
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…
Whether among the myriad tiny proto-galaxies there exists a population with similarities to present day galaxies is an open question. We show, using BlueTides, the first hydrodynamic simulation large enough to resolve the relevant scales,…
We compare the star-formation history and dynamics of the Milky Way (MW) with the properties of distant disk galaxies. During the first ~4 Gyr of its evolution, the MW formed stars with a high star-formation intensity (SFI), Sigma_SFR~0.6…
The analysis of disk formation is based on the White & Rees (1978) picture, in which disk galaxies form by continuous cooling and accretion of gas within a merging hierarchy of dark matter halos. A simple Kennicutt law of star formation for…
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…
We discuss the main ingredients necessary to build models of chemical evolution of spiral galaxies and in particular the Milky Way galaxy. These ingredients include: the star formation rate, the initial mass function, the stellar yields and…
We explore the implications for the high redshift universe of ``state-of-the-art'' models for the chemical and spectrophotometric evolution of spiral galaxies. The models are based on simple ``scaling relations'' for discs, obtained in the…
We present simple models for disk evolution based on two different approaches: a forward approach based on predictions generic to hierarchical models for structure formation (e.g., Mo, Mao, & White 1998) and a backwards approach based on…
We study the evolution of disk galaxies using galaxy evolutionary models with initial and boundary conditions linked to the hierarchical formation scenario. Disks galaxies are modeled locally within growing cold dark matter halos and…
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…
The morphologies of disk galaxies begin to deviate systematically from those of nearby galaxies at surprisingly low redshifts, possibly as low as z=0.3. This corresponds to a time ~3.5 Gyr in the past, which is only one quarter of the…
The separation of the Milky Way disk into a thin and thick component is supported by differences in the spatial, kinematic and metallicity distributions of their stars. These differences have led to the view that the thick disk formed early…
Ever since a thick disk was proposed to explain the vertical distribution of the Milky Way disk stars, its origin has been a recurrent question. We aim to answer this question by inspecting 19 disk galaxies with stellar mass greater than…
I review several of the current issues in the theory of disk galaxy formation. There is sti ll much to be done, observationally and theoretically, before we can expect to approach an understanding of disk galaxies that is reliable enough to…
Increasingly large populations of disk galaxies are now being observed at increasingly high redshifts, providing new constraints on our knowledge of how such galaxies evolve. Are these observations consistent with a cosmology in which…
The Milky Way serves as a template for understanding the formation and evolution of late-type massive disk galaxies since we can obtain detailed chemical and kinematic information for large samples of individual stars. However, the early…
We use recent observations of high-redshift galaxies to study the evolution of galactic disks over the redshift range 0<z<1. The data are inconsistent with models in which disks were already assembled at z=1 and have evolved only in…