星系天体物理
Boxy/peanut and X-shaped (BP/X) bulges are prominent features in edge-on disk galaxies and are believed to be vertically thickened bars. Despite their relevance in bar evolution, a statistically robust census of these structures in large…
Observations of extreme starbursts, often located in the cores of protoclusters, challenge the classical bottom-up galaxy formation paradigm. Giant elliptical galaxies at $z=0$ must have assembled rapidly, possibly within few 100 Myr…
The mass-metallicity relation is a fundamental galaxy scaling law that has been extended to the faintest systems in the Local Group. We show that the small scatter in this relation, which has been used to argue against tidal mass loss in…
Galactic disks typically exhibit a negative radial metallicity gradient, indicating faster enrichment in the inner regions. Recent studies report that this gradient becomes flatter with increasing stellar age in the Milky Way's (MW) thin…
Methylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been hypothesised to be present in the interstellar medium (ISM) through their 3.4 and 6.9 $\mu$m absorption bands. To investigate the hydrogenation of these methylated PAHs, the…
A majority of JWST/NIRSpec/IFU studies at high redshifts to date have focused on UV-bright or massive objects, while our understanding of low-mass galaxies at early cosmic times remains limited. In this work, we present NIRSpec/IFS…
Recent 3D dust maps of the local Milky Way are revolutionizing our understanding of the Sun's Galactic neighborhood, providing much needed insight into the large-scale organization of the interstellar medium. Focusing on the largest scales…
We explore the consequences of a novel but increasingly well-supported hypothesis that supermassive black holes may have formed from primordial black holes form ed prior to, and rapidly growing in, the radiation-dominated universe. We show…
Light reprocessed by dust grains emitting in the infrared allows the study of the physics at play in dusty, embedded regions, where ultraviolet and optical wavelengths are attenuated. Infrared telescopes such as JWST have made it possible…
We present a detailed analysis of J154506, a strongly lensed submillimeter galaxy behind the Lupus-I molecular cloud, and characterisation of its physical properties using a combination of new and archival data, including VLT/MUSE and FORS2…
Clumps in the rest-frame UV emission of galaxies have been observed for decades. Since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a large population is detected in the rest-frame near-infrared (NIR), raising questions about their…
Context. The South Pole Telescope third-generation camera (SPT-3G) has observed over 10,000 square degrees of sky at 95, 150, and 220 GHz (3.3, 2.0, 1.4 mm, respectively) and will significantly overlap the ongoing 14,000 square-degree…
Precise cosmological constraints from type Ia supernovae require adequately accurate corrections for host-galaxy extinction. Modelling these corrections is challenged by the problem of disentangling supernova intrinsic colours from…
Using a sample of 166 projected quasar pairs we investigate the influence of active galactic nuclei on the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the quasar host galaxies probed using strong Mg II absorption (i.e., $W_{2796}\ge 1\dot{A}$) at impact…
The evolution of galaxies is known to be connected to their position within the large-scale structure and their local environmental density. We investigate the relative importance of these using the underlying dark matter density field…
The new era of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy will significantly improve our understanding of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) by providing precise constraints on its underlying physical properties. However, spectral fitting requires…
The initial mass function (IMF) of stars and the corresponding cloud mass function (CMF), traditionally considered universal, exhibit variations that are influenced by the local environment. Notably, these variations are apparent in the…
Galaxy mergers are a key driver of galaxy formation and evolution, including the triggering of AGN and star formation to a still unknown degree. We thus investigate the impact of galaxy mergers on star formation and AGN activity using a…
We present Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) estimates of the physical properties and star formation efficiency (SFE) of molecular gas in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), using new $^{12}$CO $J=2\to1$ observations from the James Clerk…
Two mysterious unresolved HI structures at velocities of +12 and -6 km/s were discovered in high resolution 21-cm survey data in the direction of a faint white dwarf star. Examination of the HI morphology in this area of sky shows that the…