Related papers: The Galaxy in the cosmological context
We study the evolution of global shapes of galaxies using cosmological simulations. The shapes refer to the components of dark matter (DM), stars and gas at the stellar half-mass radius. Most galaxies undergo a characteristic compaction…
Standard chemical evolution models based on long-term infall are affected by a number of problems, evidenced by the analysis of the most recent data. Among these: (1) models rely on the local metallicity distribution, assuming its shape is…
We study the chemical evolution and formation of the Galactic halo through the analysis of its stellar metallicity distribution function and some key elemental abundance patterns. Starting from the two-infall model for the Galaxy, which…
With references to both key and oft-forgotten pioneering works, this article starts by presenting a review into how we came to believe in the existence of massive black holes at the centres of galaxies. It then presents the historical…
Large volume cosmological simulations succeed in reproducing the large-scale structure of the Universe. However, they lack resolution and may not take into account all relevant physical processes to test if the detail properties of galaxies…
Understanding galaxy formation involves look-back and fossil-record studies of distant and nearby galaxies, respectively. Debris trails in our Galaxy's spheroidal halo of old stars provide evidence of "bottom-up" formation via tidal…
Numerical simulations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies undergoing several close encounters with the Milky Way are described. By comparing our models to observed properties of the recently discovered dwarf galaxy in Sagittarius (Sgr), we discuss…
The evolution of galaxies results from a combination of internal and external processes. The star formation is an internal process transforming cold and dense cores of molecular clouds to stars. It may be triggered internally by expanding…
We simulate the formation of a realistic disk galaxy within the hierarchical scenario of structure formation and study its internal properties to the present epoch. We compare results from a LambdaCDM simulation with a LambdaWDM (2keV)…
We examine correlations between the masses, sizes, and star formation histories for a large sample of low-redshift early-type galaxies, using a simple suite of dynamical and stellar populations models. We confirm an anti-correlation between…
Stellar halos of galaxies retain crucial clues to their mass assembly history. It is in these galactic components that the remains of cannibalised galactic building blocks are deposited. For the case of the Milky Way, the opportunity to…
Empirical star formation laws from the last 20 years are reviewed with a comparison to simulations. The current form in main galaxy disks has a linear relationship between the star formation rate per unit area and the molecular cloud mass…
The recently emerging conviction that thick disks are prevalent in disk galaxies, and their seemingly ubiquitous old ages, means that the formation of the thick disk, perhaps more than any other component, holds the key to unravelling the…
The 5 independent correlations between the properties of galaxies observed outside big clusters must set such strong constraints on any theory of galaxy formation that it is hard to imagine any but the right one passing muster; certainly…
The formation of our Milky Way can be parsed qualitatively into different phases that resulted in its structurally different stellar populations: the halo and the disk components. Revealing a quantitative overall picture of the Galactic…
Motivated by the recently improved knowledge on the kinematic and chemical properties of the Galactic metal-poor stars, we present the numerical simulation for the formation of the Galactic stellar halo to interpret the observational…
I begin by summarizing the evidence that there is a close relationship between the evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes. They evidently share a common fuel source, and feedback from the black hole may be needed to suppress…
The spherical gravitational collapse and virialization of arbitrary density fluctuations in an expanding universe is studied. In the context of the standard cosmological model and the peak $ansatz$, disk galaxies are supposed to be the…
The physical phenomena contributing to the galaxy growth can be tested all the way to z= 1. Galaxy mass, extinction, star formation and gas metal abundance can be measured in a robust way, as well as the distribution of the galaxy…
We study the detailed structure of galaxies at redshifts z > 2 using cosmological simulations with improved modeling of the interstellar medium and star formation. The simulations follow the formation and dissociation of molecular hydrogen,…