Related papers: How `heredity' and `environment' shape galaxy prop…
The properties of galaxies are strongly correlated with their environment, with red galaxies dominating galaxy clusters and blue galaxies dominating the general field. However, not all field galaxies are young: studies of the colors, line…
Major progress has been made over the last few years in understanding hydrodynamical processes on cosmological scales, in particular how galaxies get their baryons. There is increasing recognition that a large part of the baryons accrete…
How elliptical galaxy dynamics relate to galaxy structure, stellar populations, spiral galaxies and environment are reviewed. The evidence assembled shows that most, if not all, galaxies originally classified as gE contain disks within…
We explore the motivation behind large stellar surveys in Galactic astronomy, in particular, surveys that measure the photometric, phase space and abundance properties of thousands or millions of stars. These observations are essential to…
Some factors connecting the evolutionary histories of galaxies with the characteristics of their cluster systems are reviewed. Unanswered questions include: How is one to understand the observation that some globular cluster systems have…
We present two different projects. The first one is related to the development of a semi-analytic model to follow the formation, the evolution and chemical enrichment of cluster galaxies in a hierarchical dark matter model. The second…
In hierarchical models, density fluctuations on different scales are correlated. This induces correlations between dark halo masses, their formation histories, and their larger-scale environments. In turn, this produces a correlation…
How do galaxies form and evolve? This is one of the most puzzling questions in astronomy. Galaxy assembly takes place throughout the entire history of the Universe, but our understanding of it is hampered by the unfortunate fact that we can…
The traditional view of the morphology-spin connection is being challenged by recent integral-field-unit observations, as the majority of early-type galaxies are found to have a rotational component that is often as large as a dispersion…
We present a semi-analytic model of isolated dwarf galaxy evolution and use it to study the build-up of observed correlations between dwarf galaxy properties. We analyse the evolution using models with averaged and individual halo mass…
If we are to develop a comprehensive and predictive theory of galaxy formation and evolution, it is essential that we obtain an accurate assessment of how and when galaxies assemble their stellar populations, and how this assembly varies…
The discovery of a population of massive, compact and quiescent early-type galaxies has changed the view on plausible formation scenarios for the present day population of elliptical galaxies. Traditionally assumed formation histories…
Galaxy formation is a very complex process in which many different physical mechanisms intervene. Within the LCDM paradigm processes such as gas inflows and outflows, mergers and interactions contribute to the redistribution of the angular…
Star clusters and their stellar populations play a significant role in the context of galaxy evolution, across space (from local to high redshift) and time (from currently forming to fossil remnants). We are now within reach of answering a…
We provide a new multi-waveband compilation of the data describing the cosmological evolution of quasars, and discuss a model that attributes the evolution to variation in the rate of merging between dark halos in a hierarchical universe.…
The age and chemical composition of the stars in present-day galaxies carry important clues about their star formation processes. The latest generation of population synthesis models have allowed to derive age and stellar metallicity…
Spiral galaxies offer a unique opportunity to study the role of star formation in galaxy evolution and to test various theoretical star formation schemes. I review some recent relevant work on the evolution of spiral galaxies. Detailed…
The properties of galaxies depend on their environment: red, passive elliptical galaxies are usually located in denser environments than blue, star-forming spiral galaxies. This difference in galaxy populations can be detected at all scales…
In the current paradigm there is a non-trivial bias expected in the process of galaxy formation. Thus, the observed statistical properties of the galaxy distribution do not necessarily extend to the underlying matter distribution.…
Stars are fossils that retain the history of their host galaxies. Elements heavier than helium are created inside stars and are ejected when they die. From the spatial distribution of elements in galaxies, it is therefore possible to…