Related papers: Substructure and Tidal Debris in Local Galaxies: M…
We study the shape and evolution of the star formation main sequence in three independently developed semi-analytic models of galaxy formation. We focus, in particular, on the characterization of the model galaxies that are significantly…
We present evidence to support an earlier indication that the Galaxy is embedded in an extended, highly inclined, triaxial halo outlined by the spatial distribution of companion galaxies to the Milky Way. Signatures of this spatial…
Generally, merger likelihood increases in denser environments; however, the large relative velocities at the centres of dense clusters are expected to reduce the likelihood of mergers for satellite galaxies. Tidal features probe the recent…
The outer regions of galaxies are expected to contain important clues about the way in which galaxies are assembled. Although quantitative study of these parts has been severely limited in the past, breakthroughs are now being made thanks…
The recent observations of gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration (LVK) have provided a new opportunity for studying our Universe. By detecting several merging events of black holes (BHs), LVK has spurred the…
Stars are fossils that retain the history of their host galaxies. Elements heavier than helium are created inside stars and are ejected when they die. From the spatial distribution of elements in galaxies, it is therefore possible to…
We use the Aquarius simulation series to study the imprint of assembly history on the structure of Galaxy-mass cold dark matter halos. Our results confirm earlier work regarding the influence of mergers on the mass density profile and the…
Stellar mergers are responsible for a large variety of astrophysical phenomena. They form blue straggler stars, give rise to spectacular transients, and produce some of the most massive stars in the Universe. Here, we focus on mergers from…
In hierarchical galaxy formation the stellar halos of galaxies are formed by the accretion of minor satellites and therefore contain valuable information about the (early) assembly process of galaxies. Our GHOSTS survey measures the stellar…
In the $\Lambda$CDM model of structure formation galactic haloes build up by accretion of mass and mergers of smaller subunits. The most recent massive merger event experienced by the Milky Way (MW) halo was the accretion of the Large…
The local stellar halo of the Milky Way contains the debris from several past accretion events. Here we study in detail the structure and properties of nearby debris associated with the Helmi streams, originally identified as an overdensity…
Two studies have recently reported the discovery of pronounced Halo substructure in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) commissioning data. Here we show that this Halo substructure is almost in its entirety due to the expected tidal stream…
Studies of stellar populations, understood to mean collections of stars with common spatial, kinematic, chemical, and/or age distributions, have been reinvigorated during the last decade by the advent of large-area sky surveys such as SDSS,…
Numerical simulations have shown that massive dark matter haloes, which today host galaxy clusters, assemble their mass over time alternating periods of quiescent accretion and phases of rapid growth associated with major merger episodes.…
We use the semi-analytic model ChemTreeN, coupled to cosmological N-body simulations, to explore how different galaxy formation histories can affect observational properties of Milky Way-like galaxies' stellar haloes and their satellite…
In the local Universe, the existence of very young galaxies (VYGs), having formed at least half their stellar mass in the last 1 Gyr, is debated. We predict the present-day fraction of VYGs among central galaxies as a function of galaxy…
The Milky Way halo was predominantly formed by the merging of numerous progenitor galaxies. However, our knowledge of this process is still incomplete, especially in regard to the total number of mergers, their global dynamical properties…
We analyse the spatial distribution of halo merger sites using four numerical simulations with high time resolution of structure growth in a Lambda-CDM cosmology. We find no evidence for any large-scale relative bias between mergers and…
Compact binary mergers and the collapse of massive stars can produce intense transients observable across high-energy wavelengths. Events such as gamma-ray bursts and kilonova emissions are often accompanied by gravitational wave…
We describe a correlation function statistic that quantifies the amount of spatial and kinematic substructure in the stellar halo. We test this statistic using model stellar halo realizations constructed from the Aquarius suite of six…