Related papers: Two Disk Components from a Gas Rich Disk-Disk Merg…
Recent observations demonstrate that the thin and thick disks of the Galaxy have different chemical abundance trends and evolution timescales. The relative abundances of $\alpha$-elements in the thick Galactic disk are increased relative to…
We study the formation of chemical sequences in the stellar disc of Milky Way (MW)-mass galaxies in a full cosmological context with the auriga simulations. We focus on the conditions giving rise to bi-modal $\alpha$-chemistry in the MW…
We report the first robust measurement of the Milky Way star formation history using the imprint left on chemical abundances of long-lived stars. The formation of the Galactic thick disc occurs during an intense star formation phase between…
We study the evolution of Milky Way thick and thin discs in the light of the most recent observational data. In particular, we analyze abundance gradients of O, N, Fe and Mg along the thin disc as well as the [Mg/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] relations…
A scenario for the formation of the bi-modality in the chemical space [$\alpha$/Fe] vs [Fe/H] of the Milky Way was recently proposed in which $\alpha$-enhanced stars are produced early and quickly in clumps. Besides accelerating the…
We present our preliminary BIMA CO(1-0) images of II~Zw~96 which show huge molecular gas concentrations outside the merging disks. The dominant extra-disk CO concentrations in II~Zw~96 correspond to the two star-forming ``knots'' hidden by…
Mergers of gas-rich galaxies lead to gravitationally driven increases in gas pressure that can trigger intense bursts of star and cluster formation. Although star formation itself is clustered, most newborn stellar aggregates are unbound…
We present the abundance analysis of 97 nearby metal-poor (-3.3<[Fe/H]<-0.5) stars having kinematics characteristics of the Milky Way (MW) thick disk, inner, and outer stellar halos. The high-resolution, high-signal-to-noise optical spectra…
We present the first results of a larger study into the stellar abundances and chemical trends in long-lived dwarf stars in the solar neighbourhood that belong to (based on their kinematics) the thin and thick galactic disk, respectively.…
We examine a physical process that leads to the efficient formation of gas giant planets around intermediate mass stars. In the gaseous protoplanetary disks surrounding rapidly-accreting intermediate-mass stars we show that the midplane…
We present, for the first time, direct evidence that, in a merger of disk galaxies, the preexisting central metallicities will mix as a result of gas being transported in the merger interface region, along the line that joins the two…
A chromospheric age distribution of 552 late-type dwarfs is transformed into a star formation history by the application of scale height corrections, stellar evolutionary corrections and volume corrections. We show that the disk of our…
The chemical abundances in the atmosphere of a star provide unique information about the gas from which that star formed, and, modulo processes that are not important for the vast majority of stars, such as mass transfer in close binary…
We identify and characterise a Milky Way-like realisation from the Auriga simulations with two consecutive massive mergers $\sim2\,$Gyr apart at high redshift, comparable to the reported Kraken and Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus. The Kraken-like…
In local disk galaxies such as our Milky Way, older stars generally inhabit a thicker disk than their younger counterparts. Two competing models have attempted to explain this result: one in which stars first form in thin disks that…
In the context of the concordance cosmology, structure formation in the Universe is the result of the amplification, by gravitational effects, of small perturbations in the primeval density field. This results in the formation of structures…
We present the results of several detailed numerical N-body simulations of the dynamical interactions of two equal mass disc galaxies. Both galaxies are embedded in spherical halos of dark matter and contain central bulges. Our analysis of…
We present an investigation of massive star formation that results from the gravitational collapse of massive, magnetized molecular cloud cores. We investigate this by means of highly resolved, numerical simulations of initial magnetized…
The abundance evolution of galaxies depends critically on the balance between the mixing of metals in their interstellar medium, the inflow of new gas and the outflow of enriched gas. We study these processes in gas columns perpendicular to…
Our Galaxy is thought to have undergone an active evolutionary history dominated by star formation, the accretion of cold gas, and, in particular, mergers up to 10 gigayear ago. The stellar halo reveals rich fossil evidence of these…