Related papers: Astrometric Tests of Galactic Evolution
We show that the kinematics of the shells seen around some elliptical galaxies provide a new, independent means for measuring the gravitational potentials of elliptical galaxies out to large radii. A numerical simulation of a set of shells…
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…
Surveys of the local and distant Universe are the means to test and improve our models of galaxy formation. Substantial successes in the models are evident, while there is also considerable recent progress in identifying what remains to be…
The disks of galaxies are primarily stellar systems, and fundamentally dynamical entities. Thus, to fully understand galactic disks, we must study their stellar kinematics as well as their morphologies. Observational techniques have now…
Evolution of galaxies is one of the most actual topics in astrophysics. Among the most important factors determining the evolution are two galactic components which are difficult or even impossible to detect optically: the gaseous disks and…
The Thesis is an attempt to combine data from three previously independent areas - the structure and kinematics of stellar populations of the Galaxy, photometric and dynamical models of galaxies, and models of the dynamical and physical…
Tests of gravity at the galaxy scale are in their infancy. As a first step to systematically uncovering the gravitational significance of galaxies, we map three fundamental gravitational variables -- the Newtonian potential, acceleration…
Cosmological observations are beginning to reach a level of precision that allow us to test some of the most fundamental assumptions in our working model of the Universe. One such an assumption is that gravity is governed by the General…
A review of the present observational and theoretical status of elliptical galaxies is presented with the aim to clarify whether the monolithic or the hierarchical, is a more viable scenario for the origin of these structures. We describe…
Stellar evolution models are a cornerstone of young star astrophysics, which necessitates that they yield accurate and reliable predictions of stellar properties. Here, I review the current performance of stellar evolution models against…
The peculiar velocities of galaxies are driven by gravity, and hence hold the promise of probing details of how gravity forms structures. In particular it is possible to constrain cosmological parameters and to test extensions to the…
The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) will gather unprecedented spectro-photometric data on galaxies out to the highest redshifts. It is therefore crucial to identify the spectro-photometric diagnostics within reach of NGST, which will…
Recent advances in observational techniques and theoretical modelling of galaxy kinematics allow us to use more than just optical morphology to discern the structure and dynamics of galaxies. Here, we show for three barred galaxies (UGC…
Gravitation governs the expansion and fate of the universe, and the growth of large scale structure within it, but has not been tested in detail on these cosmic scales. The observed acceleration of the expansion may provide signs of…
Model fitting is frequently used to determine the shape of galaxies and the point spread function, for examples, in weak lensing analyses or morphology studies aiming at probing the evolution of galaxies. However, the number of parameters…
Recent developments in gravitational lensing astronomy have paved the way to genuine mappings of the gravitational potential at cosmological scales. We stress that comparing these data with traditional large scale structure surveys will…
The current standard cosmological model is constructed within the framework of general relativity with a cosmological constant $\Lambda$, which is often associated with dark energy, and phenomenologically explains the accelerated cosmic…
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 fraction of high-redshift sources which are multiply-imaged by intervening galaxies is strongly dependent on the cosmological constant, and so can be a useful probe of the cosmological model. However its power is limited by various…
I review the standard paradigm for understanding the formation and evolution of cosmic structure, based on the gravitational instability of dark matter, but many variations on this basic theme are viable. Despite the great progress that has…