Related papers: M31's Undisturbed Thin Disk of Globular Clusters
Thin and thick discs are prominent components in the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies, but their formation histories are not yet understood, which is particularly true for thick discs. This is partially due to the fact that we lack…
Many globular clusters (GCs) in the Milky Way (MW) have been studied in recent years, especially in hidden regions such as those of the Galactic bulge. Our main goal is to understand what we can learn if we include these new objects into…
We study the chemical evolution of the disks of the Milky Way (MW) and of Andromeda (M31), in order to reveal common points and differences between the two major galaxies of the Local group. We use a large set of observational data for M31,…
We present deep integrated-light spectroscopy of nine M33 globular clusters taken with the Hectospec instrument at the MMT Observatory. Based on our spectroscopy and previous deep color-magnitude diagrams obtained with HST/WFPC2, we present…
We present absorption line indices measured in the integrated spectra of globular clusters both from the Galaxy and from M 31. Our samples include 41 Galactic globular clusters, and more than 300 clusters in M 31. The conversion of…
We examine the star-forming history (SFH) of the M31 disk during the past few hundred Myr. The luminosity functions (LFs) of main sequence stars at distances R_GC > 21 kpc (i.e. > 4 disk scale lengths) are matched by models that assume a…
The halo and disc globular cluster population can be used as a tracer of the primordial epochs of the Milky Way formation. In this work, literature data of globular clusters ages, chemical abundances, and structural parameters are studied,…
We present a new approach to measuring the thickness of a partially face-on stellar disk, using dust geometry. In a moderately-inclined disk galaxy, the fraction of reddened stars is expected to be 50% everywhere, assuming that dust lies in…
The large majority of extragalactic star cluster studies performed to date essentially use multi-colour photometry, combined with theoretical stellar synthesis models, to derive ages, masses, extinction estimates, and metallicities. M31…
The properties of a stellar grouping that is ~ 3.5 kpc to the north east of the center of M31 is examined. This structure has (1) a surface brightness that is lower than the surrounding disk, (2) a more-or-less round appearance, (3) a size…
We utilise the final catalogue from the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey to investigate the links between the globular cluster system and field halo in M31 at projected radii $R_p=25-150$ kpc. In this region the cluster radial density…
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within…
We present initial results from our JWST NIRSpec program to study the $\alpha$-abundances in the M31 disk. The Milky Way has two chemically-defined disks, the low-$\alpha$ and high-$\alpha$ disks, which are closely related to the thin and…
Globular clusters can form inside their host galaxies at high redshift when gas densities were higher and gas-rich mergers were common. They can also form inside lower-mass galaxies that have since been accreted and tidally disrupted,…
The ages and metallicities of globular clusters play an important role not just in testing models for their formation and evolution but in understanding the assembly history for their host galaxies. Here we use a combination of imaging and…
[Abridged] M31 has several times more globular clusters (GCs) than the Milky Way. It contains a correspondingly larger number of low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) associated with GCs, and can be used to investigate the GC properties which…
Recent observations of our neighbouring galaxy M31 have revealed that its disk was shaped by widespread events. The evidence for this includes the high dispersion ($V/\sigma$ $\le$ 3) of stars older than 2 Gyr, and a global star formation…
We analyze high quality abundances data of solar neighborhood stars and show that there are two distinct regimes of [alpha/Fe] versus age which we identify as the epochs of the thick and thin disk formation. A tight correlation between…
We discuss the present state of knowledge and thought concerning the spread in age found among Galactic globular clusters, with some discussion of the implications for what happened during the earliest stages of the formation of the Milky…
The nearest giant spiral, M31, exhibits a kinematically hot stellar disc, a global star formation episode ~2-4 Gyr ago, and conspicuous substructures in its stellar halo that are suggestive of a recent accretion event. Recent chemodynamical…