Related papers: Spiral Galaxies as Chiral Objects?
In the past years a wealth of observations has allowed us to unravel the structural properties of the Dark and Luminous mass distribution in spirals. As result, it has been found that their rotation curves follow, out their virial radius,…
The first results of the observational program of the study of 2D-kinematics in double-barred galaxies are presented. We show that, for the main part of the sample, the inner bars do not affect the circumnuclear stellar kinematics.…
We combine deep optical and IR photometry for 326 spiral galaxies from two recent galaxy samples and report that the surface brightness profiles of late-type spirals are best fit by two exponentials. Moreover, the ratio of bulge and disk…
Chirality is at the origin of life and is ubiquitous in nature. An object is deemed chiral if it is non-superimposable with its own mirror image. This relates to how circularly polarized light interacts with such object, a circular…
Recent work on globular cluster systems in dwarf galaxies outside the Local Group is reviewed. Recent large imaging surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope and follow-up spectroscopy with 8-m class telescopes now allow us to compare the…
We suggest that the bulge-to-disc ratios of spiral galaxies are primarily determined by the angular momenta of their host haloes predicted in current hierarchical clustering models for structure formation. Gas with low specific angular…
Passive spiral galaxies - unusual galaxies with spiral morphologies but without any sign of on-going star formation - have recently been shown to exist preferentially in cluster infalling regions. This discovery directly connects passive…
Light scattering from chiral plasmonic structures can create near fields with an asymmetry greater than the equivalent circularly polarised light, a property sometimes referred to as superchirality. These near fields with enhanced chiral…
Polar-ring galaxies are systems with two nearly orthogonal rotational axes, and are therefore clearly the result of galaxy-galaxy interactions. The host galaxies of polar rings are typically gas-poor early-type systems. The rings…
The colors of globular clusters in most of large elliptical galaxies are bimodal. This is generally taken as evidence for the presence of two cluster subpopulations that have different geneses. However, here we find that, because of the…
Spiral galaxies have distinct internal structures including a stellar bulge, disk and spiral arms. It is unknown when in cosmic history these structures formed. We analyze observations of BRI 1335-0417, an intensely star-forming galaxy in…
We study chiral symmetry structure at finite density and temperature in the presence of external magnetic field and gravity, a situation relevant in the early Universe and in the core of compact stars. We then investigate the dynamical…
Secular evolution gradually shapes galaxies by internal processes, in contrast to early cosmological evolution which is more rapid. An important driver of secular evolution is the flow of gas from the disk into the central regions, often…
The analysis of a sample of 30 isolated spiral galaxies with and without an AGN results in active and control galaxies having similar bulge and disk properties (since both samples are selected to match in morphological and bar…
Recent observational results on the globular cluster systems of spiral galaxies are summarized. Although the number of spirals with well-studied GCSs is still small, new studies promise to increase it rapidly in the next few years. New…
The causes of spiral structure in galaxies remain uncertain. Leaving aside the grand bisymmetric spirals with their own well-known complications, here we consider the possibility that multi-armed spiral features originate from density…
We compare the properties of local spiral galaxies with the predictions of the Cole et al. semi-analytic model of hierarchical galaxy formation, in order to gain insight into the baryonic processes that were responsible for shaping these…
Some 30% of disc galaxies have a pronounced central bar feature in the disc plane and many more have weaker features of a similar kind. Kinematic data indicate that the bar constitutes a major non-axisymmetric component of the mass…
Simulations and observations of galactic bars suggest they do not commonly evolve into bulges, although it is possible that the earliest bars formed bulges long ago, when galaxies were smaller, denser, and had more gas. The most highly…
We show that there are strong links between certain types of asymmetrical Planetary Nebulae (PNe) and symbiotic stars. Symbiotics are binaries and several have extended optical nebulae all of which are asymmetrical and ~-40% are bipolar.…