Related papers: On The Formation of Disk Galaxies and Massive Cent…
A theory is developed for the dynamics of eccentric perturbations $[\propto \exp(\pm i\phi)]$ of a disk galaxy residing in a spherical dark matter halo and including a spherical bulge component. The disk is represented as a large number $N$…
Recent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have begun to reveal a surprising morphological diversity in galaxies within the first billion years after the Big Bang, including indications of structural maturity previously…
Recent JWST observations claim the existence of a significant fraction of bars in the kinematically hotter and thicker disk at high redshift Universe. These observations challenge the current understanding of disk stability in galaxies…
Recent studies have revealed that bars can form as early as a few billion years after the Big Bang, already displaying similar characteristics of evolved bars in the Local Universe. Bars redistribute angular momentum across the galaxy,…
Stellar bars are the most common non-axisymmetric structures in galaxies and their impact on the evolution of disc galaxies at all cosmological times can be significant. Classical theory predicts that stellar discs are stabilized against…
We study the detailed structure of galaxies at redshifts z > 2 using cosmological simulations with improved modeling of the interstellar medium and star formation. The simulations follow the formation and dissociation of molecular hydrogen,…
Circumstellar disks are an essential ingredient of the formation of low-mass stars. It is unclear, however, whether the accretion-disk paradigm can also account for the formation of stars more massive than about 10 solar masses, in which…
We perform controlled N-body simulations of disc galaxies growing within live dark matter (DM) haloes to present-day galaxies that contain both thin and thick discs. We consider two types of models: a) thick-disc initial conditions to which…
We have used deep, HST, near-IR imaging to study the morphological properties of the most massive galaxies at high z, modelling the WFC3/IR H-band images of the ~200 galaxies in the CANDELS-UDS field with 1 < z_phot < 3, and stellar masses…
The role of dark matter halos in galaxy disk evolution is reviewed, in particular the stabilisation of disks through self-gravity reduction, or the bar development through angular momentum exchange. Triaxial dark halos tend to weaken bars.…
Galaxies in the early universe appear to have grown too big too fast, assembling into massive, monolithic objects more rapidly than anticipated in the hierarchical $\Lambda$CDM structure formation paradigm. The available photometric data…
Galactic disks can form in asymmetric potentials of the assembling dark matter (DM) halos, giving rise to the first generation of gas-rich bars. Properties of these bars differ from canonical bars analyzed so far. Moreover, rapid disk…
We study a sample of approximately 16,500 galaxies with I_AB <= 22.5 in the COSMOS field. Structural information on the galaxies is derived by fitting single Sersic models to their two-dimensional surface brightness distributions. We…
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.…
Unsustained matter distributions unescapely collapse unless fragmentation and centrifugal or pressure support take place. Starting from the above evidence, supermassive compact objects at the centre of large-mass galaxies are conceived as…
In our hierarchical structure-formation paradigm, the observed morphological evolution of massive galaxies -- from rotationally-supported discs to dispersion-dominated spheroids -- is largely explained via galaxy merging. However, since…
Bars and spiral arms have played an important role as constraints on the dynamics and on the distribution of dark matter in the optical parts of disk galaxies. Dynamics linked to the dissipative nature of gas, and its transformation into…
We report the identification of elongated (triaxial or prolate) galaxies in cosmological simulations at $z\simeq2$. These are preferentially low-mass galaxies ($M_s \le 10^{9.5} \ M_\odot$), residing in dark-matter (DM) haloes with strongly…
The discovery of hundreds of young, bright stars within a parsec from the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy presents a challenge to star formation theories. The requisite Roche densities for the gravitational collapse of gas…
A new view on our Galaxy has recently emerged, with large consequences on its formation scenarios. Not only new dwarf satellites have been detected, still orbiting and tidally disrupting, but also a multitude of stellar streams or tidal…