Related papers: Formation and Cosmic Evolution of Elliptical Galax…
Galaxy formation is at the heart of our understanding of cosmic evolution. Although there is a consensus that galaxies emerged from the expanding matter background by gravitational instability of primordial fluctuations, a number of…
There are observational and theoretical indications that both the visible (stars) and the dark matter density distributions in elliptical galaxies increase significantly up to the galactic center. I present here some analytical results…
The most massive elliptical galaxies show a prominent multi-modality in their globular cluster system color distributions. Understanding the mechanisms which lead to multiple globular cluster sub-populations is essential for a complete…
The evolution of the content of heavy elements in galaxies, the relative chemical abundances, their spatial distribution, and how these scale with various galactic properties, provide unique information on the galactic evolutionary…
A major problem in extragalactic astronomy is the inability to distinguish in a robust, physical, and model independent way how galaxy populations are related to each other and to their formation histories. A similar, but distinct, and also…
A review of elliptical galaxy dynamics, with a focus on nonintegrable models. Topics covered include torus construction; modelling axisymmetric galaxies; triaxiality; collisionless relaxation; and collective instabilities.
Recent work on the equilibrium and stability of ellipsoidal stellar systems is reviewed. The absence of constant-density cores in early-type galaxies implies that chaos and high-order resonances are generic features of the motion in…
Galaxies are complex systems the evolution of which apparently results from the interplay of dynamics, star formation, chemical enrichment, and feedback from supernova explosions and supermassive black holes. The hierarchical theory of…
We investigate whether gradual dilution of the gas in some elliptical galaxies is the cause of a positive correlation between star formation rate (SFR) and gas-phase metallicity (Zg) at high stellar mass (M*) in the local Universe. To do…
We review the observational evidence showing that luminous cluster elliptical galaxies are old stellar systems, undergoing mostly passive stellar evolution up to redshift $z\approx 1$, with approximate coeval epoch of formation. This…
We study a possible formation mechanism for elliptical/S0 galaxies using N-body simulations with GRAPE. A close galaxy encounter which does not lead to a merger can induce a strong bar in an initially axisymmetric disk. This bar is unstable…
A century ago, in 1911 and 1913, Plummer and then Reynolds introduced their models to describe the radial distribution of stars in `nebulae'. This article reviews the progress since then, providing both an historical perspective and a…
We revisit the scaling relations and star-forming histories of local elliptical galaxies using a novel selection method applied to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. We combine two probability-based automated spectroscopic and morphological…
Advances in extragalactic astronomy have prompted the development of increasingly realistic models which aim to describe the formation and evolution of galaxies. We review the philosophy behind one such technique, called semi-analytic…
Observations consistently show that elliptical galaxies follow a tight "fundamental plane" scaling relation between size, mean surface brightness and velocity dispersion, with the form $R \propto \sigma^{a}\mu^{b}$. This relation not only…
We introduce a framework for simultaneously investigating the structure and luminosity evolution of early-type gravitational lens galaxies. The method is based on the fundamental plane, which we interpret using the aperture mass-radius…
This article concerns the formation and structure of dark matter halos, including (1) their radial density profiles, (2) their abundance, and (3) their merger rates. The last topic may be relevant to the nature of the small, bright,…
The analysis of the four-colour maps of galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field has revealed in the sample of 0.4<z<1 early-type field galaxies the existence of ellipticals with a predominantly old coeval stellar population. However, there is…
The high redshift observations of galaxies now becoming available from the Hubble Space Telescope and from large ground based telescopes are opening fresh windows on galaxy formation. Semianalytic models of galaxy formation provide us with…
The near orthogonal distributions of dwarf elliptical (dE) and giant elliptical (E) galaxies in the mu_e-Mag and mu_e-log(R_e) diagrams have been interpreted as evidence for two distinct galaxy formation processes. However, continuous,…