Related papers: Galactic Bulges
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…
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…
The galaxies of the Local Group that are currently forming stars can serve as our laboratories for understanding star formation and the evolution of massive stars. In this talk I will summarize what I think we've learned about these topics…
We compare abundances patterns in the Bulge for elements observed in stars and in planetary nebulae. Some alpha elements, like Mg and Ti, are overabundant respect to Fe, and others are not, like He, O, Si, S, Ar, Ca. The first ones favor a…
We review the formation and evolution of fossil groups and clusters from both the theoretical and the observational points of view. In the optical band, these systems are dominated by the light of the central galaxy. They were interpreted…
Current ideas on the formation of the Galaxy are reviewed. Many of the observed characteristics of our Milky Way System are consistent with a scenario in which the Galaxy formed inside out, with the inner part of it evolving by rapid…
This chapter reviews theoretical work on the stellar dynamics of galaxy disks. All the known collective global instabilities are identified, and their mechanisms described in terms of local wave mechanics. A detailed discussion of warps and…
The fact that galaxy distribution exhibits fractal properties is well established since twenty years. Nowadays, the controversy concerns the range of the fractal regime, the value of the fractal dimension and the eventual presence of a…
Changes in the law of gravity have far-reaching implications for the formation and evolution of galaxy clusters, and appear as peculiar signatures in their mass-observable relations, structural properties, internal dynamics, and abundance.…
The Galactic bulge is now considered to be the inner three-dimensional part of the Milky Way's bar. It has a peanut shape and is characterized by cylindrical rotation. In N-body simulations, box/peanut bulges arise from disks through bar…
Recently the search for the oldest stars have started to focus on the Bulge region. The Galactic bulge hosts extremely old stars, with ages compatible with the ages of the oldest halo stars. The data coming from these recent observations…
It is an observational fact that bulges of spiral galaxies contain a high fraction of old and metal-rich stars. Following this observational fact, we have investigated colors of 21 bulges hosted by a selected sample of high surface…
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.
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…
I review in these lectures our present understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe, making emphasis on the most recent observations of the acceleration of the universe, the precise measurements of the microwave background…
Old open clusters are useful tools to study the Galactic disk properties, both present and past. Populous samples with properties determined both accurately and homogenously are necessary to draw reliable conclusions. We present here our…
In the past decades, different approaches have been developed in order to link the physical properties of galaxies to the dark matter haloes in which they reside. In this review, I give a brief overview of methods, aims, and limits of these…
The intrinsic shape of galactic bulges in nearby galaxies provides crucial information to separate bulge types. We intended to derive accurate constraints to the intrinsic shape of bulges to provide new clues on their formation mechanisms…
How is the universe organized on large scales? How did this structure evolve from the unknown initial conditions to the present time? The answers to these questions will shed light on the cosmology we live in, the amount, composition and…
An introduction to modern cosmology is given, focusing on theories for the origin of structure in the Universe. After a brief review of the theory of growth of cosmological perturbations and a summary of some important observational…