Compact star clusters are commonly found in the centers of galaxies and may foster formation of intermediate-mass “seed” black holes that facilitate the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxy nuclei. Such star clusters can be studied with minimal background starlight contamination in bulgeless galaxies. We present new results that point to the presence of an accreting black hole associated with the central star cluster in the Sd galaxy NGC 1042, and discuss implications for the bulge-black hole connection.

A set of bi-orthogonal potential-density basis functions is introduced to model the density and its associated gravitational field of three dimensional stellar systems. Radial components of our basis functions are weighted integral forms of spherical Bessel functions. We discuss on the properties of our basis functions and demonstrate their shapes for the latitudinal Fourier number l = 2.

We report the progress in our measurement of the 3-D kinematics in several low foreground extinction windows of the Galactic Bulge. In order to complete the 3-D kinematics of as many stars as possible, proper motions and radial velocities have been obtained using HST WFPC2-ACS and VLT VIMOS respectively. Our preliminary results for fields close to the galactic minor axis show a significant vertex deviation, which can be directly related to a signature of triaxility. This is one of the strongest proofs to date of the presence of the stellar bar in the galactic bulge.

We have attempted to overcome the incompleteness of spectroscopic survey and found galaxy clusters by measuring the spectro-photometric density of galaxies.

We introduce a Japanese space astrometry project which is called JASMINE. JASMINE (Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared Exploration) will measure distances and tangential motions of stars in the Galactic bulge with yet unprecedented precision. JASMINE will operate in z-band whose central wavelength is 0.9 micron. It will measure parallaxes, positions with accuracy of about 10 micro-arcsec and proper motions with accuracy of about 10 micro- arcsec/year for the stars brighter than z=14 mag. The number of stars observed by JASMINE with high accuracy of parallaxes in the Galactic bulge is much larger than that observed in other space astrometry projects operating in optical bands. With the completely new “map of the Galactic bulge” including motions of bulge stars, we expect that many new exciting scientific results will be obtained in studies of the Galactic bulge. One of them is the construction of the dynamical structure of the Galactic bulge. Kinematics and distance data given by JASMINE are the closest approach to a view of the exact dynamical structure of the Galactic bulge.

Presently, JASMINE is in a development phase, with a target launch date around 2016. We comment on the outline of JASMINE mission, scientific targets and a preliminary design of JASMINE in this paper.

We combine deep UBV RIzJK photometry from the MUSYC survey with redshifts from the COMBO-17 survey to study the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) properties of 674 high-redshift (0.5 < z < 1) early-type galaxies, drawn from the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (E-CDFS). Galaxy morphologies are determined through visual inspection of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images taken from the GEMS survey. We harness the sensitivity of the UV to young (<1 Gyrs old) stars to quantify the recent star formation history of the early-type population. We find compelling evidence that early-types of all luminosities form stars over the lifetime of the Universe, although the bulk of their star formation is already complete at high redshift. Luminous (−23 < M(V) < −20.5) early-types form 10-15 percent of their mass after z = 1, while their less luminous (M(V) > −20.5) counterparts form 30-60 percent of their mass in the same redshift range.

We report on a new study aimed at understanding the diversity and evolutionary properties of distant galactic bulges in the context of well-established trends for pure spheroidal galaxies. Bulges have been isolated for a sample of 137 spiral galaxies in the GOODS fields within the redshift range 0.1 < z < 1.2. Using proven photometric techniques we determine for each galaxy the characteristic parameters (size, surface brightness, profile shape) in the 4 GOODS-ACS imaging bands of both the disk and bulge components. Using the DEIMOS spectrograph on Keck, precision stellar velocity dispersions were secured for a sizeable fraction of the bulges. This has enabled us to compare the Fundamental Plane of our distant bulges with that of field spheroidal galaxies in a similar redshift range. Bulges in spiral galaxies with a bulge-to-total luminosity ratio (B/T) > 0.2 show very similar patterns of evolution to those seen for low luminosity spheroidals. To first order, their recent mass assembly histories are equivalent.

We report about the fact that the stellar population that is born in the gas inflowing towards the central regions can be vertically unstable leading to a B/PS feature remarkably bluer that the surrounding bulge. Using new chemodynamical simulations we show that this young population does not remain as flat as the gaseous nuclear disc and buckles out of the plane to form a new boxy bulge. We show that such a young B/PS bulge can be detected in colour maps.

We present near-infrared (H- and K-band) SINFONI integral-field observations of the circumnuclear star formation rings in five nearby spiral galaxies. We made use of the relative intensities of different emission lines (i.e. [FeII], HeI, Brγ) to age date the stellar clusters present along the rings. This qualitative, yet robust, method allows us to discriminate between two distinct scenarios that describe how star formation progresses along the rings. Our findings favour a model where star formation is triggered predominantly at the intersection between the bar major axis and the inner Lindblad resonance and then passively evolves as the clusters rotate around the ring (‘Pearls on a string’ scenario), although models of stochastically distributed star formation (‘Popcorn’ model) cannot be completely ruled out.

We study the pairing of massive black holes embedded in a massive circum–nuclear, rotationally supported disc, until they form a close binary. Using high resolution SPH simulations, we follow the black hole dynamics, and in particular the eccentricity evolution, as a function of the composition in stars and gas of the disc. Binary–disc interaction always leads to orbital decay and, in case of co–rotating black holes, to orbit circularization. We present also a higher resolution simulation performed using the particle–splitting technique showing that the binary orbital decay is efficient down to a separation of ~ 0.1 pc, comparable to our new resolution limit. We detail the gaseous mass profile bound to each black hole. Double nuclear activity is expected to occur on an estimated timescale of ≲ 10 Myrs.

We evaluate the nature of bulges in the Hubble sequence, based on an analysis of 216 disk galaxies of all morphological types (S0-Sd). For this purpose we collect our various analysis made separately for early and late-type galaxies, published in a series of papers. Using the criteria by Kormendy & Kennicutt we find strong evidence of pseudobulges in all Hubble types, including S0s. However, due to the relatively massive bulges in S0-S0/a galaxies it is not probable that the (pseudo)bulges in these galaxies were formed in a similar manner as in spirals. More likely, pseudobulges particularly in strongly barred early-type disk galaxies are suggested to be a combination of star formation and the nearly exponential central components of bars.

NMAGIC is a parallel implementation of our made-to-measure (χ2M2M) algorithm for constructing N-particle models of stellar systems from observational data, which extends earlier ideas by Syer & Tremaine (1996). The χ2M2M algorithm properly accounts for observational errors, is flexible, and can be applied to various systems and geometries. We show its ability to reproduce the internal dynamics of an oblate isotropic rotator model and report on the modeling of the dark matter (DM) halo of NGC 3379 combining SAURON and PN.S kinematic data. The χ2M2M algorithm is practical, reliable and can be applied to various dynamical systems without symmetry restrictions. We conclude that χ2M2M holds great promise for unraveling the internal dynamics of bulges.

We explore the connection between the central supermassive blackholes (SMBH) in galaxies and the dark matter halo through the relation between the masses of the SMBHs and the maximum circular velocities of their host galaxies, as well as the relationship between stellar velocity dispersion of the spheroidal component and the circular velocity. We rely on a heterogeneous sample containing galaxies of all types. The only requirement is that the galaxy has direct measurements of its SMBH mass, MBH, circular velocity, vc, and velocity dispersion, σ. We present a direct observational MBH − vc relation.

Using the gravitational torque indicator Qb, we derive the distribution of bar strengths for a sample of early-type disk galaxies. The sample is part of the Near-Infrared S0 Survey (NIRS0S), designed to examine the properties of bars, bulges, and disks in galaxies classified as types S0− to Sa. Although the survey is only partly finished, we find that the distribution of bar strengths in S0 galaxies differs from that in spirals by lacking an extended tail to high values of Qb. No S0 in our current sample has Qb > 0.25, while spirals extend to Qb ≈ 0.7. Bars having Qb > 0.25 first appear among S0/a to Sa galaxies.

Prompted by the possibility that we have observed star formation triggered by globular cluster and dwarf spheroidal transits through galactic disks, we have examined kinematic evidence as to whether the superstar clusters in the Galactic bulge could have been formed from such transits. From their trajectores, we cannot exclude such a possibility. We note also that the high frequency of these transits may have generated rapid star formation at early times, and that remnant cluster cores may themselves nucleate further star formation.

The global colors and structure of galaxies have recently been shown to follow bimodal distributions. Galaxies separate into a “red sequence”, populated prototypically by early-type galaxies, and a “blue cloud”, whose typical objects are late-type disk galaxies. Intermediate-type (Sa-Sbc) galaxies populate both regions. It has been suggested that this bimodality reflects the two-component nature of disk-bulge galaxies. However, it has now been established that there are two types of bulges: “classical bulges” that are dynamically hot systems resembling (little) ellipticals, and “pseudobulges”, dynamically cold, flattened, disk-like structures that could not have formed via violent relaxation. Alas, given the different formation mechanisms of these bulges, the question is whether at types Sa-Sbc, where both bulge types are found, the red-blue dichotomy separates galaxies at some value of disk-to-bulge ratio, B/T, or, whether it separates galaxies of different bulge type, irrespective of their B/T. In this paper, we identify classical bulges and pseudobulges morphologically with HST images in a sample of nearby galaxies. Detailed surface photometry reveals that: (1) The red – blue dichotomy is a function of bulge type: at the same B/T, pseudobulges are in globally blue galaxies and classical bulges are in globally red galaxies. (2) Bulge type also predicts where the galaxy lies in other (bimodal) global structural parameters: global Sérsic index and central surface brightness. Hence, the red – blue dichotomy is not due to decreasing bulge prominence alone, and the bulge type of a galaxy carries significance for the galaxy's evolutionary history.

The growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) appears to be closely linked with the formation of spheroids. There is a pressing need to acquire better statistics on SMBH masses, since the existing samples are preferentially weighted toward early-type galaxies with very massive SMBHs. With this motivation we started a project aimed at measuring upper limits on the mass of the SMBHs that can be present in the center of all the nearby galaxies (D < 100 Mpc) for which STIS/G750M spectra are available in the HST archive. These upper limits will be derived by modeling the central emission-line widths ([N II] λλ6548, 6583, Hα and [S II] λλ6716, 6731) observed over an aperture of ~01 (R < 50 pc). Here we present our preliminary results for a subsample of 76 bulges.

Three new and still on-going surveys that combine the power of spectroscopy or adaptive optics from the Keck Telescopes with HST images are DEEP, AEGIS, and CATS. The advantages of each for the study of distant bulges are accompanied by a few highlights. We find that the vast fraction of luminous distant bulges appear very red, independent of the bulge luminosity, bulge fraction, disk color, and environment. Yet early-type galaxies appear to be relatively young at redshifts z ~ 1, are less numerous then, host many X-ray AGN's with some that are highly obscured, and have low but increasing dry-dry and dry-wet merger rates over time.

We present recent results showing that a large fraction of red sequence galaxies contain ionized gas with LINER-like optical emission line ratios. This emission is more frequently found in galaxies with lower central velocity dispersion (σ) and these galaxies typically have younger mean ages than galaxies at the same σ which do not host emission. We suggest that the presence of LINER-like emission may be determined by the quantity of interstellar material in these galaxies and may be associated with the recent accretion of a gas-rich satellite galaxy or alternatively with stellar mass loss that declines as the galaxy stellar population ages.

Pseudobulges form from unstable disks, while classical bulges form in violent episodes of star formation when a merger sweeps cold gas to a galactic centre. It seems unlikely that smashed disks contribute much to classical bulges. During mergers central black holes make cusps shallower and inflate kinematically decoupled cores. The abundance of galaxies with no detected classical bulge can perhaps be understood if galaxies exchange gas with the IGM more freely than is often supposed.