Related papers: Cosmology and the Stellar Halo
High resolution cosmological N-body simulations show that the density profiles of dark matter halos in hierarchical cosmogonies are universal, with low mass halos typically denser than more massive ones. This mass-density correlation is…
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, we have resolved individual red-giant branch stars in the halos of eight nearby spiral galaxies. The fields lie at projected distances between 2 and 13 kpc along the galaxies' minor axes. The data set…
Galactic stellar haloes are largely composed of the remnants of galaxies accreted during the assembly of their host galaxies, and hence their properties reflect the mass spectrum and post-accretion evolution of their satellites. As the…
One of the generic predictions of modern cosmological models is that large galaxies should have experienced many mergers with smaller galaxies at some point in their past. Debris from such encounters will leave spatially distinct…
We point out that the usual self-similarity in cold dark matter models is broken by encounters with individual normal galactic stars on sub-pc scale. Tidal heating and stripping must have redefined the density and velocity structures of the…
In a LCDM cosmology, the Milky Way accretes satellites into the stellar disc. We use cosmological simulations to assess the frequency of near disc plane and higher inclination accretion events, and collisionless simulations of satellite…
To place the highly substructured stellar halos of the Milky Way and M31 in a larger context of hierarchical galaxy formation, it is necessary to understand the prevalence and properties of tidal substructure around external galaxies. This…
We present a cosmologically motivated model for the hierachical formation of the stellar halo which includes a semi-analytic treatment of galactic chemical enrichment coupled to numerical simulations that track the orbital evolution and…
We study numerical simulations of satellite galaxy disruption in a potential resembling that of the Milky Way. Our goal is to assess whether a merger origin for the stellar halo would leave observable fossil structure in the phase-space…
We summarize evidence that the halo of the Milky Way comprises two different, and broadly overlapping, stellar components. The two structures exhibit different chemical compositions, spatial distributions, and kinematics. These results were…
The outer haloes of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies contain as much important information on their assembly and formation history as the properties of the discs resident in their centres. In this paper we have used the Constrained…
We analyse the density profiles of the stellar halo populations in eight Milky-Way mass galaxies, simulated within the $\Lambda$-Cold Dark Matter scenario. We find that accreted stars can be well-fitted by an Einasto profile, as well as any…
The halo stars on highly radial orbits should inevitably pass the center regions of the Milky Way. Under the assumption that the stellar halo is in dynamical equilibrium and axisymmetric, we integrate the orbits of $\sim 10,000$ halo…
We use high-resolution N-body simulations to study the equilibrium density profiles of dark matter halos in hierarchically clustering universes. We find that all such profiles have the same shape, independent of halo mass, of initial…
We present a robust method to constrain average galaxy star formation rates, star formation histories, and the intracluster light as a function of halo mass. Our results are consistent with observed galaxy stellar mass functions, specific…
High-resolution N--body simulations show a remarkable similarity in the structure of dark matter halos formed through dissipationless hierarchical clustering. Independent of halo mass, power spectrum, and cosmological parameters, the…
Deep photometric surveys of the Milky Way have revealed diffuse structures encircling our Galaxy far beyond the "classical" limits of the stellar disk. This paper reviews results from our own and other observational programs, which together…
We study the evolution of stellar mass in galaxies as a function of host halo mass, using the "MPA" and "Durham" semi-analytic models, implemented on the Millennium Run simulation. The results from both models are similar. We find that…
We use the TNG50 cosmological hydrodynamic simulation to study the accreted stellar component and stellar haloes of isolated galaxies spanning a wide range of masses ($10^8<M_*/M_\odot<10^{11}$). We find that stars formed in the main…
According to the now strongly supported concordance $\Lambda$CDM model, galaxies may be grossly described as a luminous component embedded in a dark matter halo. The density profile of these mass dominating haloes may be determined by N -…