Related papers: Nova Populations
A number of so-called ultra-cool white dwarfs have been detected in different surveys so far. However, based on anecdotal evidence it is believed that most or all of these ultra-cool white dwarfs are low-mass products of binary evolution…
The peak luminosities and rates of decline for a large sample of novae recently published by Clark et al. have been analyzed using the Yaron et al. nova models to estimate fundamental properties of the M31 nova population. The apparent…
I review the characteristics of cluster populations in other galaxies, with particular emphasis on young star clusters and a comparison with the (known) open cluster population of the Milky Way. Young globular cluster-like (compact,…
Star clusters are among the first celestial objects catalogued by early astronomers. As simple and coeval populations, their study has been instrumental in charting the properties of the Milky Way and providing insight into stellar…
We propose that luminous transients, including novae and supernovae, can be used to detect the faintest galaxies in the universe. Beyond a few Mpc, dwarf galaxies with stellar masses $<10^6 M_{\odot}$ will likely be too faint and/or too low…
We investigate the stellar populations of a sample of Tidal Dwarf Galaxies, combining observations and evolutionary synthesis models to try and reveal their formation mechanism. On optical images we select a first sample of TDGs for which…
Recent results on the detection of substructure in dwarf spheroidal galaxies are discussed. In most cases they show that, when a galaxy experiences multiple SF episodes, the intermediate age population is more centrally concentrated than…
If the stellar halos of disk galaxies are built up from the disruption of dwarf galaxies, models predict highly structured variations in the stellar populations within these halos. We test this prediction by studying the ratio of blue…
We perform evolutionary calculations of binary stars to find progenitors of systems with parameters similar to the recurrent nova U Sco. We show that a U Sco-type system may be formed starting with an initial binary system which has a…
Dwarf galaxies are valuable laboratories for dynamical studies related to dark matter and galaxy evolution, yet it is currently unknown just how physically extended their stellar components are. Satellites orbiting the Galaxy's potential…
ALMA has observed a plethora of ring-like structures in planet forming discs at distances of 10-100 au from their host star. Although several mechanisms have been invoked to explain the origin of such rings, a common explanation is that…
Massive disk galaxies like our Milky Way should host an ancient, metal-poor, and centrally concentrated stellar population. This population reflects the star formation and enrichment in the few most massive progenitor components that…
Recent spectroscopic observations in the Milky Way suggest that the chemically defined thick disk (stars with high [alpha/Fe] ratios and thus old) has a significantly smaller scale-length than the thin disk. This is in apparent…
Close white dwarf binaries make up a wide variety of objects such as double white dwarf binaries, which are possible SN Ia progenitors, cataclysmic variables, super soft sources, or AM CVn stars. The evolution and formation of close white…
We present new proper motions from the 10 m Keck telescopes for a puzzling population of massive, young stars located within 3.5" (0.14 pc) of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center. Our proper motion measurements have…
It is widely believed that star clusters form with low star formation efficiencies. With the onset of stellar winds by massive stars or finally when the first super nova blows off, the residual gas is driven out of the embedded star…
Gaia Data Release 2 revealed a population of ultramassive white dwarfs on the Q branch that are moving anomalously fast for a local disc population with their young photometric ages. As the velocity dispersion of stars in the local disc…
The discovery of wide, eccentric Gaia neutron stars (NSs) in binaries with still evolving (likely main sequence) companions offers a new probe of mass transfer and pulsar recycling beyond the compact-binary regime. We model their origins…
We present the first characterization of the statistical relationship between a large sample of novae in M31 and their progenitor stellar populations in the form of a delay time distribution. To this end, we leverage the spatially resolved…
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…