Related papers: Stellar Disk Truncations: Where do we stand ?
We investigate the evolution of galactic disks in N-body Tree-SPH simulations. We find that disks, initially truncated at three scale-lengths, can triple their radial extent, solely driven by secular evolution. Both Type I (single…
Galactic disk formation requires knowledge about the initial conditions under which disk galaxies form, the boundary conditions that affect their secular evolution and the micro-physical processes that drive the multi-phase interstellar…
To explore the properties of extreme outer stellar disks, we obtained ultra-deep V and GALEX UV images of 4 dwarf irregular galaxies and one Blue Compact Dwarf galaxy and ultra-deep B images of 3 of these. Our V-band surface photometry…
We propose a hypothesis of the truncation of stellar discs based on the magnetic model of the rotation curve of spiral galaxies. Once the disc had formed and acquired its present structure, approximately, three balanced forces were acting…
Star formation in galaxies is triggered by a combination of processes, including gravitational instabilities, spiral wave shocks, stellar compression, and turbulence compression. Some of these persist in the far outer regions where the…
One the most cited papers in astronomy is Ken Freeman's 1970 paper on exponential disks in galaxies. In this contribution I review what has been done in this area since then and what we can infer about systematic properties of disks in…
We introduce a collection of primarily centrally star-forming galaxies that are selected by disk color to have truncated disk star formation. We show that common explanations for centrally-concentrated star formation -- low stellar mass,…
Measuring galaxy sizes is fundamental to understanding how galaxies grow and evolve. Traditional methods to measure sizes either trace the concentration of light (i.e., effective radius) or are limited by the depth of the survey (isophotal…
To understand the origin of extended disks of low-surface brightness (LSB) galaxies, we studied in detail 4 such systems with large disks seen edge-on. Two of them are edge-on giant LSB galaxies (gLSBGs) recently identified by our team. The…
Stellar photometry obtained using the Hubble Space Telescope is used to study the distributions of the number densities of stars of various ages in 12 irregular and dwarf spiral galaxies viewed edge-on. Two subsystems can be distinguished…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
The Galactic disk retains a vast amount of information about how it came to be, and how it evolved over cosmic time. However, we know very little about the secular processes associated with disk evolution. One major uncertainty is the…
We present a comparison of azimuthally averaged radial surface brightness mu(r) profiles and analytical bulge-disc decompositions (de Vaucouleurs, r^(1/4) bulge plus exponential disc) for spiral galaxies using Hubble Space…
We present the results from our deep optical imaging survey \mu_lim=26-27 V-mag/arcsec^2 of a morphologically selected sample of 72 edge-on disk galaxies. The question of the global structure of galactic stellar disks, especially the radial…
We present a study of 66 barred, early-type (S0-Sb) disk galaxies, focused on the disk surface brightness profile outside the bar region and the nature of Freeman Type I and II profiles, their origins, and their possible relation to disk…
We present new models for the formation of disk galaxies that improve upon previous models by following the detailed accretion and cooling of the baryonic mass, and by using realistic distributions of specific angular momentum. Under the…
Disk galaxies viewed as thin planar structures resulting from the conservation of angular momentum of an initially rotating pre-galactic cloud allow merely a first-order model of galaxy formation. Still, the presence of vertically extended…
We use HST/ACS to study the resolved stellar populations of the nearby, nearly edge-on galaxy NGC4244 across its outer disk surface density break. The stellar photometry allows us to study the distribution of different stellar populations…
In local disk galaxies such as our Milky Way, older stars generally inhabit a thicker disk than their younger counterparts. Two competing models have attempted to explain this result: one in which stars first form in thin disks that…
We investigate the stellar disk properties of a sample of 19 nearby spiral galaxies with low inclination and late Hubble type (Scd or later). We combine our high-resolution HST I-band observations with existing ground-based optical images…