Related papers: Disk Galaxy Evolution Along the Hubble Sequence
I briefly review the growing evidence that thick stellar disks surround most edge-on disk galaxies. Recent studies show that these extragalactic thick disks have old ages, low metallicities, long scale lengths, and moderately flattened…
We investigate the chemical evolution of the Milky Way disc exploring various schemes of recent (last several Gyr) star formation episodes, as reported in recent observational works. We use a semi-analytical model with parametrized radial…
In this series of lectures I review recent observational progress in constraining models of galaxy formation and evolution highlighting the importance advances in addressing questions of the assembly history and origin of the Hubble…
We analyse the chemical properties of a set of solar vicinity stars, and show that the small dispersion in abundances of \alpha-elements at all ages provides evidence that the SFH has been uniform throughout the thick disk. In the context…
Protoplanetary disks are the birthplaces of planetary systems. The evolution of the star-disk system and the disk chemical composition determines the initial conditions for planet formation. Therefore a comprehensive understanding of the…
Deep photometric surveys of the Milky Way have revealed diffuse structures encircling our Galaxy far beyond the "classical" limits of the stellar disk. This paper reviews results from our own and other observational programs, which together…
The clustered nature of star formation should produce a high degree of structure in the combined phase and chemical space in the Galactic disk. To date, observed structure of this kind has been mostly limited to bound clusters and moving…
I present a comprehensive review of the evolution of galaxy structure in the universe from the first galaxies we can currently observe at z~6 down to galaxies we see in the local universe. I further address how these changes reveal galaxy…
The forwards approach to galaxy formation and evolution is extremely powerful but leaves several questions unanswered. Foremost among these is the origin of disks. A backwards approach is able to provide a more realistic treatment of star…
Stellar Populations are the fossil record of Galactic evolution. Interpretation of this record in the Local Group allows one to determine reliably the dominant physics controlling the evolution of those galaxies which are typical of the…
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…
[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…
We reconstruct the history of the cosmic star formation as well as the cosmic production of metals in the universe by means of detailed chemical evolution models for galaxies of different morphological types. We consider a picture of…
Galaxy morphology has many structures that are suggestive of various processes or stages of secular evolution. Internal perturbations such as bars can drive secular evolution through gravity torques that move gas into the central regions…
The hypothesis that massive stars form by accretion can be investigated by simple analytical calculations that describe the effect that the formation of a massive star has on its own accretion flow. Within a simple accretion model that…
We review internal processes of secular evolution in galaxy disks, concentrating on the buildup of dense central features that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly out of disk gas. We call these pseudobulges.…
The formation of a binary system surrounded by disks is the most common outcome of stellar formation. Hence studying and understanding the formation and the evolution of binary systems and associated disks is a cornerstone of star formation…
The life of disk galaxies is likely punctuated with the birth (spontaneous or induced), the aging (quick or slow), and the death (sudden or progressive) of bars. These events are responsible for various major changes of the galaxy which…
Star formation depends on the available gaseous "fuel" as well as galactic environment, with higher specific star formation rates where gas is predominantly molecular and where stellar (and dark matter) densities are higher. The partition…
We consider the key problems related to measuring the mass of stellar disks and dark halos in galaxies and to explaining the observed properties of disks formed in massive dark halos.