Dr. Rok Roškar

Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zürich

petek, 21. 12. 2012, ob 10h v F3

The disks of spiral galaxies build up through a variety of processes. The demographics of stars, their kinematic and chemical properties, that we observe today represent a historic record of these past events.

Recently, it has been recognized that stars can efficiently “surf” on the crests of spiral waves throughout the disk, meaning that their present-day locations may have nothing to do with their birth environment. This radial mixing makes the disk a much more diverse place and galactic archaeology much more difficult.

I will discuss the recent advances in our understanding of this process, its implications ranging from astrobiology to extragalactic disks, and place it in the context of cosmological galaxy formation.