Related papers: Gasdynamics and Starbursts in Interacting Galaxies
Young stellar bars in disk galaxies experience a vertical buckling instability which terminates their growth and thickens them, resulting in a characteristic peanut/boxy shape when viewed edge on. Using N-body simulations of galactic disks…
We use high resolution collisionless $N$-body simulations to study the secular evolution of disk galaxies and in particular the final properties of disks that suffer a bar and perhaps a bar-buckling instability. Although we find that bars…
One of the most prominent features of galaxy clusters is the presence of a dominant population of massive ellipticals in their cores. Stellar archaeology suggests that these gigantic beasts assembled most of their stars in the early…
Simulations and observations suggest that galaxy interactions may enhance the star formation rate (SFR) in merging galaxies. One proposed mechanism is the torque exerted on the gas and stars in the larger galaxy by the smaller galaxy. We…
Interacting galaxies are known to have higher global rates of star formation on average than normal galaxies, relative to their stellar masses. Using UV and IR photometry combined with new and published H-alpha images, we have compared the…
The correspondence between galaxy major mergers and starburst activity is well-established observationally and in simulations of low redshift galaxies. However, the evolution of the properties of interactions and of the galaxies involved…
Over the past 10 Gyr, star-forming galaxies have changed dramatically, from clumpy and gas rich, to rather quiescent stellar-dominated disks with specific star formation rates lower by factors of a few tens. We present a general theoretical…
In this paper I argue that, far from necessarily hindering bar formation in disc galaxies, inner haloes may stimulate it. This constitutes a new instability mechanism by which bars can grow. To show this I use a number of N-body simulations…
While bars are commonly observed in disk galaxies, the precise conditions governing their formation remain incompletely understood. To investigate these conditions, we perform a suite of N-body simulations of bulgeless disk galaxies with…
With the prime aim of better probing and understanding the intimate link between star formation activity and the presence of bars, a representative sample of 32 non-interacting late-type galaxies with well-determined bar properties has been…
A number of theoretical and simulation results on star and structure formation in galaxy interactions and mergers is reviewed, and recent hydrodynamic simulations are presented. The role of gravity torques and ISM turbulence in galaxy…
Galactic bars are often suspected to be a channel of gas inflow to the galactic center and trigger central star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity. However, the current status on this issue based on empirical studies is…
A model for gas outflows is proposed which simultaneously explains the correlations between the (i) equivalent width of low ionization and Ly-alpha lines, (ii) outflow velocity, and (iii) star formation rate observed in Lyman Break Galaxies…
Late-type spiral galaxies are thought to be the dynamically simplest type of disk galaxies and our understanding of their properties plays a key role in the galaxy formation and evolution scenarios. The low surface brightness (LSB) galaxy…
After their initial formation, disk galaxies are observed to be rotationally stable over periods of >6 Gyr, implying that any large velocity disturbances of stars and gas clouds are damped rapidly on the timescale of their rotation.…
Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 4 (DR 4), we investigate the spatial distribution of low and high surface brightness galaxies (LSBGs and HSBGs, respectively). In particular, we focus our attention on the influence of…
Secular evolution gradually shapes galaxies by internal processes, in contrast to early cosmological evolution which is more rapid. An important driver of secular evolution is the flow of gas from the disk into the central regions, often…
Galactic bars can form via the internal bar instability or external tidal perturbations by other galaxies. We systematically compare the properties of bars formed through the two mechanisms with a series of controlled $N$-body simulations…
Many barred galaxies today harbor massive concentrations of gas in their centers, and some are known to possess supermassive black holes (SBHs) and their associated stellar cusps. Previous theoretical work has suggested that a bar in a…
Submillimeter bright galaxies in the early Universe are vigorously forming stars at ~1000 times higher rate than the Milky Way. A large fraction of stars is formed in the central 1 kiloparsec region, that is comparable in size to massive,…