Related papers: Does the Milky Way have a Maximal Disk?
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…
We compare the structure and kinematics of the 11 known satellites of the Milky Way with high resolution simulations of the formation of its dark halo in a LambdaCDM universe. In contrast to earlier work, we find excellent agreement. The…
A wealth of recent studies have shown that the LMC is likely massive, with a halo mass $>10^{11} M_\odot$. One consequence of having such a nearby and massive neighbour is that the inner Milky Way is expected to be accelerated with respect…
Within the standard hierarchical structure formation scenario, Milky Way-mass dark matter haloes have hundreds of dark matter subhaloes with mass $\gtrsim 10^8 \, {\rm M_{\odot}}$. Over the lifetime of a galactic disc a fraction of these…
Studying our Galaxy, the Milky Way (MW), gives us a close-up view of the interplay between cosmology, dark matter, and galaxy formation. In the next decade our understanding of the MW's dynamics, stellar populations, and structure will…
The hot gaseous halos of galaxies likely contain a large amount of mass and are an integral part of galaxy formation and evolution. The Milky Way has a 2e6 K halo that is detected in emission and by absorption in the OVII resonance line…
We derive new constraints on the mass of the Milky Way's dark matter halo, based on a set of halo stars from SDSS as kinematic tracers. Our sample comprises 2401 rigorously selected Blue Horizontal-Branch (BHB) halo stars drawn from SDSS…
We review the most recent evidence for the amazing properties of the density distribution of dark matter around spiral galaxies. Their rotation curves, coadded according to the galaxy luminosity, conform to an universal profile which can be…
In the $\Lambda$-CDM paradigm, the dark halo governs the gravitational potential within which a galaxy can form and evolve. In this Letter we show that the present-day inner ($r<50\text{ kpc}$) dark halo can be significantly misaligned with…
The formation mechanism of the hot gaseous halo associated with the Milky Way Galaxy is still under debate. We report new observational constraints on the gaseous halo using 107 lines-of-sight of the Suzaku X-ray observations at…
Much of our effort in understanding the long-term evolution and morphology of the Milky Way and other galaxies has focused on the equilibrium of its luminous disk. However, the interplay between all components, seen and unseen, is a major…
The simplest interpretation of the microlensing events towards the Large Magellanic Cloud detected by the MACHO and EROS collaborations is that about one third of the halo of our own Milky Way galaxy exists in the form of objects of around…
The gravitational field of Spiral galaxies is well traced by their rotation curves. Only recently it has become of extreme interest that the latter form a family ruled by two parameters of the {\it luminous} component: the disk length-scale…
We explore the relative importance of the stellar mass density as compared to the inner dark halo, for the observed gas kinematics thoughout the disks of spiral galaxies. We perform hydrodynamical simulations of the gas flow in a sequence…
The rotation curve of the Milky Way is commonly used to estimate the local dark matter density $\rho_{{\rm DM},\odot}$. However, the estimates are subject to the choice of the distribution of baryons needed in this type of studies. In this…
We develop an analytic model to calculate the rate at which galaxy disks are heated by dark matter substructures orbiting in their halos. The model takes into account the internal structure, mass function and accretion rate of satellites…
The timing argument provides a lower limit on the mass of the Milky Way. We find, using a sample of 32 stars at $R > 60$ kpc drawn from the H3 Spectroscopic Survey and mock catalogs created from published numerical simulations, that…
This paper presents an investigation of the outer disk structure by using data from a recent release of the 2 micron sky survey (2MASS). This 2MASS data show unambiguously that the stellar disk thickens with increasing distance from the…
The Gaia mission has triggered major developments in the field of Galactic dynamics in recent years, which we discuss in this review. The structure and kinematics of all Galactic components - disc, bar/bulge and halo - are now mapped in…
We review recent research on the Milky Way galaxy and try to investigate whether its shape is similar to other barred galaxies. The emphasis is given on microlensing research because this method can be useful in determining the shape of the…