Related papers: Interpreting the galaxy group CG J1720-67.8 throug…
A high number of embedded clusters is found in the Galaxy. Depending on the formation scenario, most of them can evolve to unbounded groups that are dissolved within a few tens of Myr. A systematic study of young stellar clusters showing…
Galaxy-galaxy interactions rearrange the baryons in galaxies and trigger substantial star formation; the aggregate effects of these interactions on the evolutionary histories of galaxies in the Universe are poorly understood. We combine B…
Galaxies are found to obey scaling relations between a number of observables. These relations follow different trends at the low- and the high-mass ends. The processes driving the curvature of scaling relations remain uncertain. In this…
The process of galaxy evolution over cosmic time is not yet fully understood, since there is a debate on the impact of galaxy collisions on the star formation and metallicity. The local environment of the galaxy mergers could also have a…
This talk investigates the formation of early-type galaxies from a deliberately observational view point. I begin by reviewing the conclusions that can be reached by comparing the detailed properties of galaxies in present-day clusters,…
Central Galaxies (CGs) in massive halos live in unique environments with formation histories closely linked to that of the host halo. In local clusters they have larger sizes ($R_e$) and lower velocity dispersions (sigma) at fixed stellar…
Aims: We present a new method that uses luminosity or stellar mass functions combined with clustering measurements to select samples of galaxies at different redshifts likely to follow a progenitor-to-descendant relationship. As the method…
Open clusters older than $\sim4$ Gyr are rare in the Galaxy. Affected by a series of mass-decreasing processes, the stellar content of most open clusters dissolves into the field in a time-scale shorter than $\sim1$ Gyr. In this sense,…
We present a novel method to constrain the past collisional evolution of observed globular cluster (GC) systems, in particular their mass functions. We apply our method to a pair of galaxies hypothesized to have recently undergone an…
We analyse the properties of three unusual dwarf galaxies in the Centaurus A group discovered with the HIPASS survey. From their optical morphology they appear to be low surface brightness dwarf spheroidals, yet they are gas-rich…
We reexamine the systematic properties of local galaxy populations, using published surveys of star formation, structure, and gas content. After recalibrating star formation measures, we are able to reliably measure specific star formation…
This paper presents the XMM-Newton first-light observations of the Hickson-16 compact group of galaxies. Groups are possibly the oldest large-scale structures in the Universe, pre-dating clusters of galaxies, and are highly evolved. This…
We present a new morphological indicator designed for automated recognition of galaxies with faint asymmetric tidal features suggestive of an ongoing or past merger. We use this new indicator, together with preexisting diagnostics of galaxy…
We examine galaxy groups from the present epoch to z = 1 to explore the impact of group dynamics on galaxy evolution. We use group catalagues from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Group Environment and Evolution Collaboration (GEEC)…
Globular clusters (GCs), the oldest stellar systems observed in the Milky Way, have for long been considered single stellar populations. As such, they provided an ideal laboratory to understand stellar dynamics and primordial star formation…
We present our chemically consistent GALEV Evolutionary Synthesis models for galaxies and point out differences to previous generations of models and their effects on the interpretation of local and high-redshift galaxy data.
In the local Universe, there is a handful of dwarf compact star-forming galaxies with extremely low oxygen abundances. It has been proposed that they are young, having formed a large fraction of their stellar mass during their last few…
The absolute magnitude of the brightest galaxy of clusters varies remarkably little and is nearly independent of all other physical properties of the cluster as, e.g., its spatial extension or its richness. The question arises whether the…
We present results on the study of the stellar population in Early-Type galaxies (ETGs) belonging to 151 Compact Groups (CGs). We also selected a field sample composed of 846 ETGs to investigate environmental effects on galaxy evolution. We…
The process by which massive galaxies transition from blue, star-forming disks into red, quiescent galaxies remains one of the most poorly-understood aspects of galaxy evolution. In this investigation, we attempt to gain a better…