Related papers: Secular evolution in galaxies
We report first results from a series of N-body/gasdynamical simulations designed to study the origin of galaxy morphologies in a cold dark matter-dominated universe. The simulations include star formation and feedback and have numerical…
We present Ha integral field spectroscopy of well resolved, UV/optically selected z~2 star-forming galaxies as part of the SINS survey with SINFONI on the ESO VLT. Our laser guide star adaptive optics and good seeing data show the presence…
We follow the formation and evolution of bars in N-body simulations of disc galaxies with gas and/or a triaxial halo. We find that both the relative gas fraction and the halo shape play a major role in the formation and evolution of the…
We model the evolution of the galactic bulge and of the bulges of a selected sample of external spiral galaxies, via the multiphase multizone evolution model. We address a few questions concerning the role of the bulges within galactic…
The current understanding of galaxy formation is that it proceeds in a 'bottom up' way, with the formation of small clumps of gas and stars that merge hierarchically until giant galaxies are built up. The baryonic gas loses the thermal…
Gravitational interactions and mergers are shaping and reshaping galaxies throughout the observable universe. While observations of interacting galaxies at low redshifts yield detailed information about the processes at work, observations…
Galaxy mergers and interactions are mechanisms which could drive the formation of bars. Therefore, we could expect that the fraction of barred galaxies increases with the local density. Here we show the first results of an extensive search…
Short (inner) bars of sub-kiloparsec radius have been hypothesized to be an important mechanism for driving gas inflows to small scales, thus feeding central black holes. Recent numerical simulations have shown that the growth of central…
I review the various mechanisms for creating bars in rotating stellar disks, and conclude that the swing-amplified feed-back loop, which produces rapidly tumbling bars, remains the most probable. The bar continues to evolve after its…
For several decades now, open clusters have been used to study the structure and chemical evolution of the disk of our Galaxy. Due to the fact that their ages and metallicities can be determined with relatively good precision, and since…
Galaxies represent the visible fabric of the Universe and there has been considerable progress recently in both observational and theoretical studies. The underlying goal is to understand the present-day diversity of galaxy forms, masses…
Using three fiducial Nbody+SPH simulations, we follow the merging of two disk galaxies with a hot gaseous halo component each, and examine whether the merger remnant can be a spiral galaxy. The stellar progenitor disks are destroyed by…
In this review, I discuss just three aspects of the stability and evolution of galactic discs. (1) I first review our understanding of the bar instability and how it can be controlled. Disc galaxies in which the orbital speed does not…
[Abridged] Over the past two decades observations and theoretical simulations have established a global frame-work of galaxy formation and evolution in the young Universe. Galaxies formed as baryonic gas cooled at the centres of collapsing…
The growth of black holes and the formation and evolution of galaxies appear to be linked at such a fundamental level that we think of the two as `co-evolving.' Recent observations show that this co-evolution may be complex and the result…
We perform controlled N-body simulations of disc galaxies growing within live dark matter (DM) haloes to present-day galaxies that contain both thin and thick discs. We consider two types of models: a) thick-disc initial conditions to which…
Since stellar populations enhance particular element abundances according to the yields and lifetimes of the stellar progenitors, the chemical evolution of galaxies serves as one of the key tools that allows the tracing of galaxy evolution.…
Galaxies must form and evolve via the acquisition of gas from the intergalactic environment, however the way this gas accretion takes place is still poorly understood. Star-forming galaxies are surrounded by multiphase halos that appear to…
Cosmological simulations predict that during the evolution of galaxies, the specific star formation rate continuously decreases. In a previous study we showed that generally this is not caused by the galaxies running out of cold gas but…
Observations show a clear vertical metallicity gradient in the Galactic bulge, which is often taken as a signature of dissipative processes in the formation of a classical bulge. Various evidence shows, however, that the Milky Way is a…